TransCanada joint venture wins $2.1B US natural gas pipeline bid in Mexico

TransCanada Corp. and a joint venture partner have wona contract to build,own and operate a $2.1-billion USnatural gaspipeline in Mexico.

The Calgary-based company says it will develop the 800-kilometreSur de Texas-Tuxpan pipeline in co-operation with IEnova, asubsidiary of California-based Sempra Energy.

TransCanada said it will invest about $1.3 billion USinthe partnership and will own 60 per cent of thepipeline, withIEnova owning the rest.

Once completed in late 2018, the pipeline will pump 2.6 billioncubic feet of gas per day from offshore wells in the Gulf of Mexicoto Tuxpan in Veracruz state.

The investment increases TransCanada's total existing assets andprojects in development in Mexico to more than $5 billion US, allcovered by 25-year agreements with Mexico's state-owned utility.

TransCanada says that in the last eight months it has also beenawarded contracts to build the Tuxpan-Tula and the Tula-Villa deReyes pipelines, both of which are already under construction.