TransCanada Activates New Mexican Pipeline
TransCanada said July 16 it had placed its US$1.2bn Topolobampo Pipeline project into service in northern Mexico, providing capacity for the delivery of 670mn ft3/day of capacity to the states of Chihuahua and Sinaloa as the upstream interconnection with TransCanada’s existing Mazatlan Pipeline.
The project involved the construction of approximately 560 km (348 miles) of 30-inch diameter pipeline from El Encino, near the city of Chihuahua, to Topolobampo, near the city of Los Mochis, Sinaloa. Combined, the Topolobampo and Mazatlan pipelines form a system that adds over 870 km (540 miles) of critical energy infrastructure that will play a fundamental role in providing natural gas to power plants, industrial and urban markets for the economic development of the northwest region of Mexico.
“The completion of the Topolobampo and Mazatlan pipeline system is an important milestone for TransCanada as we continue to expand our portfolio to deliver natural gas to serve Mexico’s electric generation needs,” TransCanada Mexico president Robert Jones said. “We are developing the infrastructure to feed new power plants and convert existing fuel oil and diesel power plants, thereby reducing both the cost of electricity and greenhouse gas emissions.”
The construction of the Topolobampo Pipeline presented some of the most demanding construction challenges in the country given the route’s geography, which included the Tarahumara mountain range in Chihuahua. TransCanada used innovative techniques such as a raised bore to cross the extreme steep cliff faces and air cranes for transporting pipes to remote locations along the route.
Throughout the course of the project, which was one of the first in Mexico to include government-led indigenous consultations with impacted communities, TransCanada worked closely with landowners and local officials to ensure they were an important part of the development and construction process. Construction work created jobs for nearly 3,500 workers, and achieved more than 10mn man-hours without a lost-time incident.