II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 5286 

To prohibit certain exports of natural gas produced or refined in the United 

States, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 25, 2024 

Mr. SULLIVAN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To prohibit certain exports of natural gas produced or 

refined in the United States, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress finds that— 

5 (1) natural gas that is produced or refined in 

6 the United States should be exported from domestic 

7 terminals given the economic and national security 

8 concerns associated with exporting that natural gas 

9 from countries with corrupt governments such as 

10 Mexico; 


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1 (2) Mexico is ranked 126th out of 180 coun2 tries in the 2023 Transparency International Cor3 ruption Perceptions Index, with corruption perme4 ating political and economic segments of society in 

5 Mexico; 

6 (3) according to the 2023 Investment Climate 

7 Statement of the Department of State, ‘‘Mexico’s 

8 current executive administration has eroded the au9 tonomy and publicly questioned the value of specific 

10 antitrust and energy regulators and has proposed 

11 dissolving some of them to cut costs. Furthermore, 

12 corruption continues to affect equal enforcement of 

13 some regulations.’’; 

14 (4) the corruption permeating Mexico is illus15 trated by the significant fuel theft in Mexico, which 

16 is so rampant that— 

17 (A) Roberto Dı ́az de Leo ́n, the President 

18 of the National Fuel Retailers Association in 

19 Mexico, referred to fuel theft networks as main 

20 competitors of gas station owners; 

21 (B) according to Roberto Dı ́az de Leo ́n, 

22 there were at least 4 illegal fuel stations for 

23 every 1 of the 13,000 legal fuel stations in Mex24 ico, as of 2020; and 


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1 (C) the president of Mexico, Andre ́s 

2 Manuel Lo ́pez Obrador, has suggested that as 

much as 4 3 ⁄5 of fuel theft is orchestrated by ele4 ments of the Mexican state, and fuel thieves de5 pend on complicit politicians, police, and insid6 ers at state-controlled oil companies to make 

7 fuel theft possible; 

8 (5) employees of the Mexican state-owned pe9 troleum company, Pemex, have reportedly been 

10 threatened, kidnapped, and tortured by criminal car11 tels in Mexico to provide information on pipelines; 

12 (6) Pemex has faced frequent allegations of cor13 ruption, and, in 2018, Adria ́n Lajous Vargas, the 

14 former chief at Pemex, stated that corruption was 

15 rampant and ‘‘everywhere in all areas and at all lev16 els of the hierarchy’’; 

17 (7) Mexico has centralized governmental power 

18 in its executive branch, including through judicial re19 forms in September 2024 that asserted political con20 trol over the judiciary of Mexico by subjecting all 

21 judges to replacement through elections that favor 

22 the ruling political party; 

23 (8) the politicization of the judicial branch in 

24 Mexico imperils the principle of impartiality and 

25 casts doubt on whether laws will be applied without 


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1 favor, contracts will be honored, and trade disputes 

2 will be fairly resolved; 

3 (9) Mexican judicial reforms are expected to re4 sult in changes to regulatory agencies that are crit5 ical to upholding labor, environmental, and trade 

6 standards enshrined under the United States-Mex7 ico-Canada Agreement; 

8 (10) Mexico has also been in violation of its en9 ergy commitments under the United States-Mexico10 Canada Agreement through violations such as— 

11 (A) granting Mexican state-owned energy 

12 companies priority over private investors, in13 cluding adopting several measures to favor 

14 Pemex and the state-owned electrical utility, the 

15 Comisio ́n Federal de Electricidad, at the ex16 pense of foreign investors, the United States, 

17 and Canada; and 

18 (B) erecting new barriers to foreign trade 

19 and investment; and 

20 (11) the export of natural gas that is produced 

21 or refined in the United States and exported to ter22 minals located in Mexico— 

23 (A) is not in the national interest of the 

24 United States; and 


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1 (B) is a national security and trade con2 cern to the United States. 

3 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON EXPORTS OF NATURAL GAS. 

4 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no per5 son shall export any natural gas produced or refined in 

6 the United States to a foreign country with the intent of 

7 further exporting that natural gas through a foreign LNG 

8 terminal (as defined in section 2 of the Natural Gas Act 

9 (15 U.S.C. 717a)). 

Æ 


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