CCS IN MEXICO

Mexico has outstanding natural, social, cultural and human wealth. Its geographical location is favourable for developing various activities that play a vital role in national economy and are linked to oil, manufacturing, primary and heavy industries. Integration of strategies, technologies and schemes for reducing GHG emissions, proper management of resources and pursuing the well-being of society are fundamental in parallel to the development of economic activities.

In the case of Mexico, there is an opportunity to take advantage of COâ‚‚ for enhanced oil recovery processes (EOR) in oil industry. For this reason, in Mexico, reference is made to CCUS projects to emphasize the potential for make use of COâ‚‚ before its permanent geological storage.

Timeline

Over the last 10 years, a series of actions and initiatives have been launched to evaluate the opportunity to implement CCS in Mexico and its role in the transition to a cleaner and more sustainable economy. We invite you to learn more about what has been done in the country in terms of public policy, industry programmes and academia that are key to incorporating CCS technology in the strategy for mitigating climate change.
2009
Mexico joins the Global CCS Institute
Mexico joins the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum
WB – SENER Alliance for CCUS implementation
Through the CCS Trust Fund, the World Bank has supported the implementation of CCUS in Mexico through technical advice and consultancies. The resources to finance these activities come from the United Kingdom, Norway and Australia as donor countries.
2010
2011
First interinstitutional CCUS group
The first group to analyse the potential of CCUS in Mexico was created. It was integrated by representatives of the Ministry of Energy (SENER), The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), the Mario Molina Centre, PEMEX and the Federal Commission of Electricity (CFE). It was decided that the energy sector was the right one to start implementing the technology in the country.
Publication of the North America Carbon Sequestration Atlas
This project was carried out within the trilateral cooperation between Mexico, the United States and Canada to map the geological storage capacity of CO2 in the region.
Publication of Mexico´s CO2 Geological Storage Atlas
This atlas was developed by SENER and CFE to evaluate the geological storage capacity in the country on a national and regional scale.
2012
GENERAL LAW ON CLIMATE CHANGE (GLCC)
The GLCC represents a milestone in the country's environmental policy by defining actions to tackle climate change. Mexico became the first developing country to take policy leadership to face the challenges of climate change.
ENERGY REFORM
The fundamental objectives of this reform are to promote development with social responsibility, protection of the environment, ensure energy supply in the country and restitution of oil reserves in Mexico. Its enactment gave a historic turn to the energy sector in the country.
2013
Mexico´s CCUS Technology Roadmap (First edition)
The interinstitutional group created the CCUS-TRM along with UNAM and IPN. This document was the planning mechanism that allowed to direct the implementation of CCUS technology in Mexico.
Site selection for pilot projects
SENER, SEMARNAT, PEMEX and CFE selected the Poza Rica (Natural Gas Combined Cycle) NGCC plant for a CO2 capture pilot project and the Brillante field for CO2 injection and enhanced oil recovery pilot, both in the state of Veracruz.
2014
NATIONAL REGISTRY OF EMISSIONS (RENE)
The enactment of the RENE obliges all industries that generate more than 25,000 annual tons of GHG to report them.
ELECTRICITY INDUSTRY LAW (LIE)
The LIE is the first law where the "capture and geological storage or biosequestration of CO2" is determined as Clean Energy, with the same range as nuclear and renewable energy.
Phase 1 WB – SENER Collaboration
In this first phase, three critical studies on CCUS were carried out in regulation, geological storage and enhanced oil recovery, and CO2 capture in a combined cycle plant.
2015
PARIS AGREEMENT
Mexico submitted its Nationally Determined Contributions, including CCS technologies, as part of the strategy for mitigating climate change.
ENERGY TRANSITION LAW (LTE)
The LTE was launched to regulate sustainable use of energy and obligations regarding Clean Energy and reduction of pollutants from power generation.
2016
Mexico joins the Mission Innovation Challenge #3 CCUS
Mexico joined Mission Innovation Challenge #3, the objective of which is to reduce emissions in the energy and industrial sectors through CCS / CCUS technology.
Mexico joins the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative
Mexico was one of the 10 founding countries of this initiative in which the leading oil companies worldwide participate with the mission of jointly investing in projects to reduce GHG emissions. In 2019, Mexico ceased to be part of this initiative.
CCUS graduate programme
A master's programme was created at UNAM to increase the number of CCS specialists in the country in collaboration with the Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute of the University of California. The programme only had two generations of students between 2016 and 2018.
2017
Specialised training programme on CCUS
A specialised training programme for industry, academia and government was developed with national and international institutions with experience and recognition in CCS / CCUS. The programme was financed by SENER, SEMARNAT, the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, the World Bank and the Global CCS Institute.
CCUS Atlas of Mexico
A GIS platform was published where central databases of relevance for the development of CCUS projects were integrated to encourage research and investments in those projects in the country.
2018
Mexico´s CCUS Technology Roadmap (updated)
At the end of 2018, the update of the MRT-CCUS was published specifying that integration of industry as one of the critical sectors where CCS / CCUS can help in the profound reduction of emissions is the main characteristic.
2019
2020
2021
MeCCS Mexican Carbon Capture and Storage Platform
The first website dedicated to CCS in Mexico is developed as a collaborative project between the University of Edinburgh and the National Laboratory of Sustainability Sciences of the Institute of Ecology of UNAM.