President Claudia Sheinbaum assured that the Amigo Liquefied Natural Gas Project in Guaymas, Sonora, obtained permits during the administration of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, however, the environmental impact authorization, the most important preventive instrument in the field, was issued only last April.
This Wednesday at the presidential morning conference, journalists questioned Claudia Sheinbaum about the authorizations of the Amigo LNG Project in Sonora, with potential risks for the ecosystem and for the conservation of the Gulf of California, and the president replied that they were approved by her predecessor's government.
“This is a project that started a long time ago, it's not a project that starts with our government. He was awarded the Environmental Impact Demonstration with President López Obrador, both he and the one from Puerto Libertad, both of them, have been authorized since we came to the government. These are agreements that allow the export of gas from the United States to Asia,” he said this morning.
“Some authorizations were made, then others came, with President López Obrador, others were given, and we practically adjusted, because many contracts were already signed,” said the president.
However, Causa Natura Media (CN Media) revealed last September 20 that the National Agency for Industrial Safety and Environmental Protection of the Hydrocarbons Sector (ASEA) authorized the construction and operation of the Amigo LNG Liquefaction and Storage Terminal in Guaymas, Sonora, on April 13.
This is despite the recommendations of universities and bodies of the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) itself and the protections against the project that seeks to transport methane gas on huge ships across the Gulf of California to Asia.
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ASEA inconsistencies
Last June, a federal court ordered ASEA to refrain from issuing any environmental impact authorization for the project while an amparo lawsuit filed by the organizations Our Future and Article 19 is being resolved due to the lack of information about the project and irregularities in the public consultation process.
The organizations note that ASEA informed a federal judge on May 20 that they had not granted any permission. But the regulatory agency had already given the authorization. This is confirmed by the resolution, letter ASEA/UGI/DGGPI/0996/2026, signed by the General Directorate of Industrial Process Management (DGGPI), dated April 13, 2026.
This document authorizes Amigo LNG to install infrastructure in Guaymas to receive, process and liquefy natural gas. In addition to loading the product onto methane tankers, which will cross the Gulf of California, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with a nominal production of 5.1 million tons of LNG per year, equivalent to processing around 700 million cubic feet of gas per day.
Days after the environmental authorization was announced, a judge of the Federal Judiciary in Sonora temporarily stopped the start of the AMIGO GNL works by granting a new definitive suspension on the environmental authorization of the project.
This is after the extension of an amparo lawsuit promoted by the organization Our Future, based on allegations of operational irregularities in the environmental evaluation procedure of the work.
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In 2025, 36 hectares of the Gulf of California were ceded for a gas project
Meanwhile, El País revealed that the federal government ceded 36 hectares of coastline in the Gulf of California for the construction of the private Liquefied Natural Gas terminal linked to the Amigo project.
According to information obtained by the Northwest Environmental Defense (DAN) organization and released by El País, in April of last year, during the administration of Claudia Sheinbaum, the Administration of the Guaymas National Port System, a sectorized entity to the Secretariat of the Navy (Semar), granted Amigo LNG a contract for the partial transfer of rights and obligations for the use and exploitation of the federal maritime zone.
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