Regional gas pipeline

Honduras last month said it would seek to extend a natural gas pipeline planned between Mexico and Guatemala.

Mexican gas would be an efficient alternative to petroleum-based fuels currently used to generate electricity in Guatemala and Honduras.
A pipeline requires no liquefaction or regasification and as such is cheaper to transport than liquid natural gas.

A pipeline could take advantage of an existing right of way, used by the Central American Electrical Interconnection System, which extends from Guatemala to Panama.

Part of the cost of the Honduran extension would come from the proposed Plan of the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle, in which the United States provides $1 billion a year to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

President Barack Obama said last January that he would seek Congressional approval for the plan, which seeks to reduce migration pressures in the United States, by strengthening the economies of the three Central American countries.

No figures were given for the cost of the pipeline extension.

The cost of the Mexico-Guatemala segment would be around $1 billion.

A pipeline could continue to Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

The presidents of the six Central American countries together with their Mexican and Colombian counterparts in 2005 agreed to promote a regional energy program, including the option of natural gas.