The suspension of the Topolobampo liquefaction terminal, disclosed quietly in Sempra’s annual SEC filing, reflects the convergence of shifting corporate priorities, regulatory risk, environmental opposition, and a broader strategic pivot away from Mexico.
One of Mexico’s most closely watched natural gas export projects is officially suspended. Sempra Infrastructure has canceled the Vista Pacífico LNG project, a mid-scale liquefied natural gas liquefaction terminal that would have been built near the port of Topolobampo, Sinaloa, in partnership with CFE. The decision, disclosed in Sempra’s annual 10-K report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 26, 2026, brings to a close a four-year development effort that had positioned Topolobampo as a potential gateway for re-exporting US natural gas to Asian and Pacific markets.
“Due to a change in the priorities of SI Partners and CFE, in December 2025 we agreed to rescind the existing development agreement,” the company stated in the filing. Behind the project lies a story involving regulatory setbacks, community opposition, environmental concerns, and a sweeping corporate restructuring that has gradually shifted Sempra’s strategic center of gravity back toward the United States.
The Vista Pacífico project originated in July 2022, when CFE and Sempra Infrastructure signed a memorandum of understanding covering several natural gas infrastructure initiatives in Mexico, including the Topolobampo liquefaction terminal, a regasification project in La Paz, Baja California, and the renewal of the long-stalled Guaymas-El Oro pipeline in Sonora. Vista Pacífico envisioned an initial export capacity of between 3 and 4Mt/y, with the project designed to allow CFE to optimize excess natural gas and pipeline capacity between Texas and Topolobampo, while boosting LNG supply to isolated power markets in Baja California Sur. The non-binding memorandum was renewed in June 2024, with a validity period extending through December 2025, when the two parties ultimately agreed to walk away.
The project had attracted significant international interest. TotalEnergies signed an agreement to acquire one-third of Vista Pacífico’s production and take a minimum 16.6% stake in the project, a commitment from a major European energy company that had lent the initiative considerable commercial credibility. The US Department of Energy had also granted authorization for the export of US-produced natural gas to Mexico and for the re-export of LNG produced at Vista Pacífico, a key regulatory milestone that had cleared one of the project’s most significant hurdles.
Yet the obstacles that ultimately proved insurmountable came from closer to home. Just weeks before the SEC filing was published, Mexico’s CNE denied Sempra Infrastructure a permit to construct the liquefaction plant in Topolobampo, a regulatory blow that effectively sealed the project’s fate. According to Vista Pacífico’s own environmental impact assessment, the project would have generated at least 82 adverse environmental impacts, the majority concentrated in the marine ecosystem. The most significant damage would have stemmed from the dredging of more than 218,000m2 of seabed to install a floating liquefaction unit in a naturally shallow coastal zone, causing habitat loss, water quality deterioration, and permanent alteration of the coastline.
More than twenty environmental organizations, including the Mexican Center for Environmental Protection, Defensa Ambiental del Noroeste, and Nuestro Futuro A.C., alongside fishing communities, tourism businesses, and academic institutions, had formally opposed the project. In January 2026, they wrote directly to President Claudia Sheinbaum and Minister of Environment Alicia Bárcena demanding a Strategic Environmental Assessment before any construction could proceed. The United Nations sent the Mexican government a letter expressing concern about LNG terminal and pipeline projects across Sinaloa and Sonora, adding international scrutiny to what had become a significant domestic controversy.
The cancellation also reflects a deepening corporate pivot at Sempra. In September 2025, KKR agreed to acquire 45% of Sempra Infrastructure, elevating its total stake to 65% and positioning it as the principal shareholder of the subsidiary. The deal forms part of Sempra’s broader strategy to concentrate on US utility growth, particularly amid surging electricity demand projections tied to artificial intelligence infrastructure, while selectively managing its Mexico exposure. In parallel, Sempra Infrastructure also agreed in December 2025 to sell Ecogas, its natural gas distribution network spanning Mexicali, Chihuahua, and La Laguna-Durango, serving 661,000 customers, to Gas Natural del Noroeste, a division of Grupo Simsa.
Sempra flagged additional regulatory risks in its SEC filing. The company warned that Mexico’s 2025 legislative reforms, which expanded government authority over CFE and PEMEX, grant authorities broad discretion to suspend or revoke permits for the import, export, storage, and transport of hydrocarbons on grounds of national security or economic interest, and that it could not guarantee its existing or future permits would be exempt from such powers.
Not all of Sempra’s Mexico LNG ambitions have been abandoned. The company’s Energía Costa Azul project in Ensenada, Baja California, backed by a US$3 billion investment, is on track to produce its first LNG cargoes this spring, with commercial operations expected to begin in the summer of 2026. That project, co-owned with TotalEnergies, remains Sempra’s flagship bet on Mexico as a Pacific LNG export hub, though Vista Pacífico’s collapse narrows the geographic ambition considerably.