Mexigas

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Mexigas was awarded, through a competitive bidding process, a 30-year concession to distribute natural gas in Valle Cuautitlan-Texcoco in June 1998. The selection criterion was the minimum tariff with the maximum of service coverage by the fifth year of operations. The concession contract granted to the concessionaire exclusive rights to distribute natural gas in its concession area during the first five years. The concession area, which comprised 28 municipalities in the state of Mexico, was one of the two in which the Valley of Mexico was split for natural gas distribution concessioning. The other concession area was Mexican Federal District, which was awarded to Proyectos de Energia Mexico. Mexigas was owned by Gaz de France (75%) and Bufete Industrial Construcciones by 1998. Mexigas' concession included existing distribution assets, which belonged to Pemex (a 430-km distribution network). The company paid US$ 104 million for those assets. In addition, Mexigas committed to invest US$ 282 million in expanding its distribution network to 3,500 kms and serving 374,000 customers by its fifth year of operations. Mexigas started its commercial operations in September 1998. In Jul. 2000, a loan of US$ 73 million was granted by the EIB to partially finance the construction costs. None None