More gas for Mexico

has been awarded a contract by

's Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) to construct, own and operate a natural gas pipeline in east-central

.

The 36-inch, 125-kilometre Tamazunchale Pipeline will extend from the facilities of Pemex Gas near Naranjos, Veracruz and transport natural gas under a 26 year contract with the CFE to an electricity generation station near Tamazunchale, San Luis Potosi. TransCanada expects to invest approximately $181 million in the project.

The pipeline will be designed to transport initial volumes of 170 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d). Under the contract, the capacity of the Tamazunchale Pipeline will be expanded, beginning in 2009, to approximately 430 mmcf/d to meet the needs of two additional proposed power plants near Tamazunchale.

TransCanada will immediately commence project and construction activities with a planned in-service date of December 1, 2006. The company expects the Mexican natural gas market, currently at six billion cubic feet per day, to grow to nine billion cubic feet per day by 2013.