Mexico Imports 70% of the Gas It Consumes, Senator Robles Says
The chair of the Senate Energy Commission called for reducing reliance on foreign supply as U.S. gas exports to Mexico hit a record in August.
Around 70% of the natural gas Mexico consumes comes from abroad, said Senator Beatriz Robles, chair of the Senate Energy Commission, at the Women's Energy and Sustainability Summit 2026, according to Global Energy's report of September 12. The lawmaker framed that dependence as a matter of national security.
Official figures back the diagnosis. According to the Statistical Handbook of the Ministry of Energy (SENER), imports accounted for close to 70% of the national dry gas supply in 2020 and around 74% in 2024. Mexico does not produce the volume it consumes: since 2016 imports have exceeded national production, and in 2021 99.3% of imported gas came from the United States. That gas sustains much of the dispatch of CFE's combined-cycle plants, so a shift in the cross-border pipelines passes straight through to generation costs and industrial tariffs.
The flow is already running at maximums. U.S. pipeline exports to Mexico averaged nearly 7.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in August 2026, a monthly record, according to Wood Mackenzie. Gas consumption for power generation in Mexico topped 5.8 Bcf/d that month, also an all-time high. EIA monthly data show that June 2026, at nearly 7.6 Bcf/d, was the highest-volume month of the year so far. Robles described the risk this way: "They turn off the tap and we're exposed to anything." Among the alternatives she mentioned solar, wind and geothermal, plus the National Pipeline Plan, with 141,000 million pesos toward 2030 for 13 combined-cycle plants, while SENER aims to reduce import dependence by 2037.
Wood Mackenzie projects that August marks the 2026 peak and anticipates a seasonal decline as cooling demand eases, though the medium-term trajectory remains upward because of the expanding combined-cycle fleet. The next data point to watch is the EIA monthly report, scheduled for September 30.
This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.
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This article was drafted with AI assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.