CALGARY – TransCanada Corp. and a joint venture partner have won a contract to build, own and operate a US$2.1-billion natural gas pipeline in Mexico.

The Calgary-based company says it will develop the 800-kilometre Sur de Texas-Tuxpan pipeline in co-operation with IEnova, a subsidiary of California-based Sempra Energy.

TransCanada (TSX:TRP) said it will invest about US$1.3 billion in the partnership and will own 60 per cent of the pipeline, with IEnova owning the rest.

Once completed in late 2018 the pipeline will pump 2.6 billion cubic feet of gas per day from offshore wells in the Gulf of Mexico to Tuxpan in Veracruz state.

The investment increases TransCanada’s total existing assets and projects in development in Mexico to more than US$5 billion, all covered by 25-year agreements with Mexico’s state-owned utility.

TransCanada says that in the last eight months it has also been awarded contracts to build the Tuxpan-Tula and the Tula-Villa de Reyes pipelines, both of which are already under construction.