Currently, Central America neither produces nor consumes natural gas, although Mallon Resources of the United States holds a natural gas exploration concession in northeastern onshore Costa Rica. There are plans for Colombia to export at least 80 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (Mmcf/d) to Panama. A final feasibility study for a 120-mile, 200-Mmcf/d capacity pipeline from Cartagena, Colombia to Colon, Panama is underway. Once a sales agreement is reached, compressed natural gas will be shipped by barge to Panama until the pipeline is completed.
In December 1999, Guatemala and Mexico signed a protocol on construction of a natural gas pipeline connecting Jaltiplan de Morelos, in southern Mexico, to Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala. The pipeline eventually could be extended to the Honduran and Salvadoran borders, and possibly to Nicaragua and Costa Rica, as part of a wider Central America natural gas pipeline network. Since signing the protocol, progress on the project has been limited, but, in May 2004, Mexican government announced that it would like to revive the project. There has been some discussion by national leaders of unifying South American and Mexican natural gas pipeline networks one day, and the pipeline from Colombia to Panama would be the first step.
The small size of Central American markets, as well as recent increases in LNG prices compared to residual fuel oil prices, has tended to make importing LNG uneconomic. AES of the United States had proposed an LNG regasification facility/600-MW gas-fired plant in northeastern Honduras, but the project was abandoned in 2004.