The IDB is discussing providing $300 million in financing, of the total cost of $700 million required for the project.
The pipeline which Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is considering building at a cost of $700 million, between Guatemala and Mexico, could be funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) which is analysing provision of a loan of $300 million, as confirmed by Guatemalan President Otto Pérez.
The Mexican government is considering constructing a pipeline and eventually a refinery to supply the region.
Miguel Hakim, Mexican Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, said his country is considering building a refinery and natural gas pipeline which would cross the isthmus and would be an alternative option for generating power at low cost. Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), has $2 billion to invest.
The Inter-American Development Bank has expressed interest in funding the feasibility studies for a gas pipeline between Guatemala and Mexico.
From a press release from the Government of Panama:
President Otto Perez Molina told a press conference in New York that executives from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) expressed interest in funding feasibility studies for a gas pipeline between Guatemala and Mexico.
The company is conducting feasibility studies on the import and distribution of Liquefied Petroleum Gas in El Salvador and other Central American countries.
"It would be an important element if we managed to change the energy matrix of El Salvador," said José Luis Merino, Alba Petróleos advisor, who explained that the company (funded with capital from the municipality of El Salvador and the state of Venezuela) has had conversations with natural gas producing countries.
Central American entrepreneurs will propose to Barack Obama the revival of a project conceived in 1996 by the Regional Energy Forum of Central America.
The aim of this initiative is to lower energy costs and increase production through this route. According to Joseph Adam Aguerri, president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise of Nicaragua (Cosep), at the meeting of the Central American Integration System which will involve Obama, entrepreneurs will propose the project in order to make the region more competitive .
The natural gas and combined cycle facility under construction at Port La Unión could be supplied with gas shipped from Camisea, Peru.
In early 2011, Peru will start outputting and distributing gas from its giant fields in Camisea, 500 kilometers west from Lima. This could trigger a change in the energy mix of El Salvador, moving towards cleaner, more efficient and cheaper energy.