What Happened
Mexican officials have begun a pressure campaign to guarantee natural gas supplies in response to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's temporary ban Feb. 17 on natural gas exports through Feb. 21 amid a severe cold snap, La Jornada reported Feb. 18. In the meantime, Mexico will maintain commercial energy use with the purchase of four cargoes of liquified natural gas (LNG) from Asia.

Why It Matters
Multinational manufacturers such as General Motors and Volkswagen are temporarily halting production, contributing to $2.7 billion in estimated Mexican economic losses. While Mexican officials will likely push Texas to guarantee LNG service, they are unlikely to obtain such assurance given the Texas-first stance Abbott has taken on the issue. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will likely continue to use the incident as proof of the need to promote domestic energy production.

Background
A rare bout of severely cold weather that hit Texas, a major exporter of natural gas to Mexico, caused its LNG exports to drop by 75% by Feb. 16 before Texas cut them completely late Feb. 17. Mexico imports 90% of its natural gas from Texas because it does not have the infrastructure needed to store large quantities of natural gas.