Mexico exports first LNG to Europe, from New Fortress’ Altamira project to Gate

An LNG carrier, Energos Princess, began unloading at the Gate terminal in the Netherlands on Oct. 15, marking the first LNG import from Mexico to Europe, according to data from S&P Global Commodities at Sea.

The carrier, which loaded approximately 59,000 metric tons of LNG from New Fortress’ Altamira LNG project in Mexico, arrived at the Gate terminal on Oct. 15. This trade was likely a short-term or spot-based transaction.

It marks the first LNG export from Mexico supplying into Europe since 2006 when CAS began tracking records.

The tanker sailing for Europe was also significant. The US Department of Energy on Aug. 31 issued a key LNG export permit for the Altamira project authorizing New Fortress to export LNG to countries that lack free trade agreements with the US. The approval marked the first non-FTA permit issued by the DOE since it announced a “pause” on the approvals in January.

This first export was followed by a series of delays in the company’s timeline for starting up the project, which has a production capacity of about 1.4 million metric tons per year.

The more than $2 billion Altamira project is the first of what the company calls its Fast LNG or FLNG, units. The project sources feedgas from the US by utilizing some of the Mexican government-owned utility CFE’s underutilized firm pipeline capacity on the 2.6 Bcf/d Sur de Texas-Tuxpan marine pipeline operated by TC Energy.

The Energos Princess also delivered its first partial cargo from New Fortress Energy’s Altamira LNG facility at the Gulf of Mexico to the La Paz import terminal on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.

Mexico has long been an LNG importer. In 2024, Mexico imported 670,000 mt of LNG in 12 cargoes. Most of those volumes came from Indonesia, while the US and Trinidad supplied two cargoes each.

In September, the country was the fourth largest LNG importer in Latin America, with 6.95 Bcf, up from 6.22 Bcf in August.

However, Mexican imports remained muted so far in October.

Altamira is Mexico’s first liquefaction plant and analysts from Commodity Insights expect a few more plants to follow in the coming years.

“We expect new power generation and LNG export capacity to raise the share of Mexico’s total gas demand coming from its northwestern and western areas through 2050. Given that domestic production is not likely to keep up with demand growth, we expect this demand growth to raise Mexico’s pipeline gas imports from the US market, supported by the recent and future completion of gas pipeline projects on both sides of the border,” analysts said in a recent report.