. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/N/MEX/33
12 September 2002
(02-4828)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  Spanish
NOTIFICATION OF EMERGENCY MEASURES
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  MEXICO
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):
2. Agency responsible:  Ministry of Energy
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers and E-mail and Web site
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:  General
Directorate of Standards/Ministry of Energy (DGN/SE) Enquiry Point.
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [     ], 2.10.1 [ X ], 5.6.2 [    ], 5.7.1 [    ], other:
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading.
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):   This Mexican Official
Emergency Standard does not directly cover any product, since it regulates the installations,
design, construction and maintenance of liquified natural gas (LNG) storage plants.  It does,
however, include specifications which indirectly apply to the systems, equipment,
installations and building components of such plants.
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Mexican Official
Emergency Standard NOM-EM-001-SECRE-2002 on Safety Requirements for the Design,
Construction, Operation and Maintenance of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Storage Plants
with Systems, Equipment and Installations for the Reception, Piping, Regasification and
Delivery of LNG  (55 pages, in Spanish).
6. Description of content:  This Mexican Official Emergency Standard establishes the
minimum safety requirements for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of
liquified natural gas (LNG) storage plants with systems and installations for the reception,
piping, regasification and delivery of LNG. This Standard applies to liquified natural gas(LNG) storage plants with fixed on-shore faci lities, from the point of reception of LNG
unloaded from tankers to the point of delivery of the fuel in a gaseous state to a pipeline
transport system, with a total storage capacity of over 1,060 m3, and covers the unloading,
piping, storage, regasification and delivery of natural gas.
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:
Given that LNG reception, piping and storage facilities can constitute a risk to human
safety, a technical regulation establishing the minimum requirements for their safe design,construction, operation and maintenance was required.  The risk inherent in these
installations not being covered by safety standards led to the adoption of this Emergency
Standard.  The construction of such storage plants is therefore now regulated.
8. Relevant documents:   Diario Oficial de la Federación  (Official Journal) of 2 and
12 August 2002 (in Spanish) .G/TBT/N/MEX/33
Page 2
9. Proposed date of adoption:
Proposed date of entry into force:On the day following publication in
the Official Journal (2 August 2002);
valid for six months.
10. Final date for comments:   Not applicable
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [  X ] or address, telephone and fax
numbers and E-mail and Web site addresses, if available, of other body:
General Directorate of Standards Web site: http//www.economia.gob.mx/?P=85
(Standards catalogue).