Mexico's state-run oil company, PEMEX, will begin the second phase of a 462 mile gas pipeline from Los Ramones, Nuevo Leon to the State of Guanajuato where a number of maquiladoras and automobile factories will use the natural gas as a clean source of power.

U.S.-based investment firms BlackRock and First Reserve are investing $4.6 billion and $30 million respectively and taking a 45 percent share of the project in return.

The natural gas originates from the Eagle Ford shale reservoir in South Texas. Given the rapid growth of the maquiladoras demand for energy is on the rise. Mexico itself has huge reserves of natural gas and plans to begin producing its own in the near future, according to Nelson Balido of the San Antonio-based Energy Council of the Americas.