Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during a news conference at a military base in Apodaca, on the outskirts of Monterrey, Mexico May 13, 2022. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril/File Photo

MEXICO CITY, June 11 (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged on Saturday to see through the completion of a gas liquefaction facility and a coking plant in the southern state of Oaxaca, in an investment of 120 billion pesos ($6 billion).

On a visit to the Salina Cruz port in Oaxaca, Lopez Obrador said each plant would imply an investment of 60 billion pesos and generate thousands of new jobs in Salina Cruz.

Lopez Obrador said he aimed to have a gas pipeline finished within a year to serve a new liquefaction facility to export excess gas to Asian countries. In parallel, a tender would be carried out to start construction on the liquefaction facility.

The coking plant would be constructed using resources from Mexican state oil company Pemex, he added.

“We are talking about two plants, an investment of 120 billion pesos in the two plants, that is going to mean thousands of jobs for Salina Cruz and for the welfare of the people,” Lopez Obrador told supporters at the event.

Reporting by Cassandra Garrison and Noe Torres; editing by Diane Craft

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