Mexico Plans $4-$5 Billion LNG Hub at Gulf Port

Mexico plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export hub worth between $4 billion and $5 billion in the Gulf of Mexico that will help serve European demand, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday.

The planned LNG facility in the port of Coatzacoalcos, in the eastern state of Veracruz, would transport gas by boat to Europe, Lopez Obrador said.

"We're about to promote private sector involvement, it's going to be an investment of $4-5 billion this plant," he told a regular news conference.

Lopez Obrador had previously floated the idea of an LNG plant in Coatzacoalcos, alongside other locations.

The president was speaking a week after he offered to step up cooperation with Germany over "liquid gas", according to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

A Mexican official said the two had discussed LNG.

Mexico does not yet commercially export LNG, though it is one of the top crude oil exporters in the region.

In August, Canadian firm TC Energy inked a deal with Mexican state power utility Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) to build a $4.5 billion gas pipeline connecting the port of Tuxpan with Coatzacoalcos, and the ports of Veracruz and Dos Bocas.

(Reuters - Reporting by Dave Graham and Raul Cortes; Writing by Kylie Madry; editing by Jonathan Oatis)