It seems an almost homogeneous trend. Energy companies move almost in unison to take their business to one more focused on renewables and that fossil fuels lose their prominence. But IEnova, one of the most important companies in the sector in the country, still sees from afar focusing entirely on this market and will continue, at least in the following years, with a strategy also focused on natural gas, the fuel that has been led to sustained growth.
So says Tania Ortiz Mena, who has led IEnova since mid-2018. The company’s leader believes that the key lies in diversification and that is where her strategy is pointing.
“The energy portfolio of a country and a company, like ours, is more solid to the extent that it is diversified, with a condition for the future and looking towards the transition. Is the future in renewables? I would say: partly yes, but you have to be very aware of technological advances ”, he explains.
The company has managed to diversify in a timely manner. IEnova already has five wind and solar parks in its portfolio, and two more under construction, equivalent to 900 megawatts in operation and 100 megawatts under construction. But it also has other large projects aimed at transporting natural gas – the most widely used fuel in the country – such as the Texas-Tuxpan marine gas pipeline, which was renegotiated at the beginning of the six-year term together with six other infrastructure projects.
Now, he explains, the company’s strategy is based mainly on four points: a project to export liquefied natural gas to Asia, its existing assets in storage of refined products, its electricity generation parks through renewable methods and a continuous look towards new technologies.
The company is already beginning to explore new technologies, such as hydrogen and batteries, some of the trends already followed by other companies, especially in developed countries. But they still do not have a firm project, and in the meantime, says Ortiz Mena, the firm cannot yet give an estimate of when it could add these segments to its portfolio.
But while the future arrives and the energy transition approaches, IEnova is concentrating on one of its major projects that will be able to bring new resources to the company: the export of natural gas from the basins of the United States to Asia from its Costa Azul plant. in Ensenada, Baja California. A plan, which received regulatory approval in December 2020 and in which the company has invested nearly $ 2 billion of equity capital and debt.
The company already has an agreement with three companies to send the gas to the Asian continent. IEnova’s management foresees the start of production for 2024 and the commercial operation for a year later.
But the large expense that IEnova has made has also had a negative effect on the company: last April the rating agency Moody’s lowered the ratings of its debt to Baa2 (global scale, local currency) from Baa1 and Aa2.mx (Mexican national scale ) from Aa1.mx, with a negative outlook.
“We are in a construction phase, where we are injecting significant amounts of capital into the company via contributions from the same company, such as debt, so this situation of leverage is what leads Moody’s to change the credit rating,” explains its director During the Interview.
The rating agency has also argued that the downgrade is the result of the consequent deterioration in the credit quality of its counterparties related to the federal government, including the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission and Pemex, which have also seen their rating downgraded at the last months.
But Moody’s assures that IEnova still has a stable profile and its director assures that, despite the pandemic, during the past year the company met its financial goals. The company closed 2020 with a drop of 8.5% in its net profit and a decrease in its revenues of 1.4% compared to last year.
And during the past year, the company, like the rest of the sector, not only went through the pandemic, but also through a series of changes and regulatory uncertainty: modifications to the way the electricity and hydrocarbons markets operate, two in the one that IEnova has incursion. But Ortíz Mena is calm about it and assures that the key is a constant conversation with the federal government.
IEnova already went through this at the beginning of the six-year term, although it was a more serious conversation, when it had to sit down with the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to renegotiate the contract for the Texas-Tuxpan marine gas pipeline.
“We want to continue investing and we have assets that will be here for 30, 40 or 50 years. So we spend a lot of time, and it seems very productive, to dialogue with the government, understand what worries them, find creative solutions and we will continue to do so, ”says Tania Ortíz Mena. “It is an easy part of having a successful operation.”
IEnova started a new chapter a few weeks ago: the American Sempra Energy increased its stake from 70.2% to 96.4% of the company’s total shares. And this, the company said in a statement a few weeks ago, is a sign of the company’s commitment to invest in the country for the future.
