Mexico’s Gas Reserves Would Last Only 3 Days

ByAlma E. Muñoz, Alonso Urrutia y Alejandro Alegría

This article by Alma E. Muñoz, Alonso Urrutia and Alejandro Alegría originally appeared in the October 8, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

If the United States cut off the natural gas supply, Mexico –which imports 75 percent of what it consumes– would have a reserve of barely three days, because “we have no storage,” revealed yesterday the director general of the National Center for Natural Gas Control (Cenagas), Cuitláhuac García.

At yesterday’s morning press conference, the official explained that the country has gas in around 21 thousand kilometers of pipelines and “one of the ways to supply ourselves is to use part of what we have there. (…) We have no storage, but through these strategies we could have up to three days if there were any cut in imported natural gas.”

He revealed that “a week ago there was a critical situation in the United States; they warned that they were going to stop sending about one fifth of what we take as imports from the national pipelines. It was a hard blow.”

Previously, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo acknowledged that the greatest dependence is on the natural gas supply. That is why “we are expanding renewable sources to substitute gas, that is, energy from the sun, the wind, the earth, so that we do not have to consume even more gas.”

Alfredo Bejos, president of the Mexican Natural Gas Association, considered it urgent to increase storage of that fuel, which is strategic to reduce risks in the face of contingencies such as the 2021 crisis. He also noted that the reduction that occurred a few days ago was scheduled and had no major repercussions.

Gerardo Pérez Guerra, president of the Mexican Wind Energy Association, stressed the importance of renewable energies, such as solar and wind, because they offer greater energy security.

Mexico is at high risk that one day the United States decides to turn off the tap.

Gerardo Pérez Guerra, Mexican Wind Energy Association

On the other hand, at the 16th Joint Congress of Energy Associations, Stephan Mothe, associate researcher at Bloomberg NEF, warned that “in the renegotiations of the USMCA (T-MEC), the United States has a very important card to play with Mexico,” since dependence on US gas is expected to increase to 84 percent by 2030.

Meanwhile, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Carlos Aurelio Hernández González, president of the National Energy Commission of the Confederation of Employers of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex), detailed that the US supply cut occurred between October 2 and 4, “apparently due to an operational failure alert in the Phoenix pipelines.”

In the framework of the ninth Energy Week, Hernández González noted that in Mexico 70 percent of electricity is generated with natural gas and, given the dependence on the US supply, the country is exposed to being left without electricity.