Standoff at Sempra LNG plant as Ensenada SWAT team and Mexican Army point guns over gas safety

[Hans Laetz, Newsgroup Editor]

Eds note: From the San Diego Union Tribune.

A tense standoff at a big natural gas plant that supplies Mexican and
U.S. customers, including those in San Diego, ended only after Baja
California officials and the Mexican army stepped in, the plant’s
owner said.

More than 50 municipal police, dressed in SWAT-style uniforms, burst
through two gates shortly after 4 p.m. Friday and entered a guardhouse
that controls access to sensitive parts of the plant.

“They entered the building, but they couldn’t go anywhere beyond that
because we have a hardened steel turnstile,” said Darcel Hulse, who
heads Sempra LNG, which owns the plant.

"They did not penetrate in any way the operating portions of the
plant," he said. "Had the actions gone beyond that, to the ordering of
removal of operators from the facility, it would have been a real
dangerous safety risk."

Baja California economic development officials arrived about two hours
later and removed seals on the gates placed there by the municipal
police.

Federal authorities dispatched the army to the plant about five hours
after the standoff began.

No shots were fired. As of Saturday, the municipal police have left,
but soldiers remain, guarding the facility.

The plant is a big part of the region’s energy infrastructure. Ships
deliver natural gas cooled to 260 degrees below zero, which is used to
make electricity and supply homes and businesses on both sides of the
border.

At the time of the attempted shutdown, the plant was in "sendout"
mode, meaning that the super-cooled natural gas was being warmed up
and returned to gaseous state so it could be put into pipelines.

Both Sempra LNG and San Diego Gas & Electric are owned by Sempra
Energy. They operate independently.

Ensenada Mayor Enrique Pelayo Torres ordered the plant shut down
Friday saying there were “irregularities and flagrant violations to
the law.”

Pelayo said a prior mayor improperly granted land-use permits and that
local authorities lacked details about how the plant was built and how
it runs that they would need in an emergency.

That former mayor belongs to a competing political party.

Using force to challenge approvals granted by prior elected officials
questions the stability of doing business in the country, Hulse said.

"They're complaining about municipal planning regulations or zoning,"
he said. "What is the urgency on a Friday night? And what is the
urgency of taking these actions without even having a discussion with
us."

Hulse wouldn't respond to Pelayo's allegations point-by-point, but
said the plant operates with all required permits. If Pelayo had
questions about how it’s run, he could have simply asked for a tour.

Dispatching police to close the plant was dangerous, because the plant
needs trained operators around the clock to ensure safety.

"There was absolutely no understanding and a callous disregard for the
safety of our operation," Hulse said, calling the attempted shutdown
"excessive."

"There were more than 50 heavily armed police — not just policemen in
police cars — heavily armed in body armor and automatic weapons and
ski masks over their faces," he said.

The police arrived with reporters and camera crews in tow.

"This was well-planned, well thought out," Hulse said. "It was a show
of force and a media ploy."

In anticipation of such a move, Sempra obtained an “amparo,” or
injunction, preventing a shutdown.

Late Friday, the president of the Mexican Energy Regulatory Commission
sent Pelayo a letter asserting that the plant is operating within the
law and that it’s up to federal officials, not local politicians, to
regulate it.

The plant has been controversial for years. Lawsuits in Mexico and the
U.S. have accused Sempra of corruption, taking land illegally and
firing whistleblowers.

Hulse said those allegations are untrue, and that those who make them
are trying to extort the company.