Why Is Mexico Pacific Hiding The Names of Its Owners?
By Tyson Slocum
Read the full .pdf filing here: MexicoPacificDecemberCIC
Mexico Pacific Limited LLC (“Mexico Pacific”) is developing a proposed LNG export facility in Sonora, Mexico utilizing natural gas sourced from the United States. On March 5, 2025, Mexico Pacific submitted a Notice of Change in Control (“CIC”) in response to which Intervenors filed a timely protest. On November 24, 2025, Mexico Pacific filed the Fourth Supplement to its CIC Notice, stating that MXP Holdings, LLC is the parent company of Mexico Pacific and listing four entities that hold membership interests in MXP Holdings:
- Windsor Cliff Sponsor LLC with its managing member Chapel Ridge Partners, LP, controlled by trusts owned by an unnamed U.S. citizen (70%).
- LDM Strategic Holdings, LLC (10%).
- Avila Blue, LLC (10%).
- Sonvapor LP (10%).
Intervenors protest the Fourth Supplement because of Mexico Pacific’s continuing failure to disclose the identities of the natural persons that exercise management control of MXP Holdings, including control of any of the four entities listed as holding a membership interest in MXP Holdings. In light of that continuing failure, Intervenors submit that the requested Change in Control is contrary to the public interest.
The Department of Energy’s change in control regulations require applications seeking to export natural gas from the United States to identify “all the participants in the transaction, including the parent company, if any, and identification of any corporate or other affiliations among the participants” with “a rebuttable presumption that control exists … from the ownership or the power to vote, directly or indirectly, 10 percent or more of the voting securities of such entity.”
Mexico Pacific’s Fourth Supplement cannot be reconciled with these Department regulations. Failure to identify the persons owning the limited liability corporations that control an applicant seeking permission to export gas violates the letter and spirit of those regulations—and disserves the public interest that they are intended to serve— because a natural person that controls an LLC is a “participant in the transaction” whose identify is required to be disclosed. Absent the required public disclosure of the natural persons that control Chapel Ridge Partners, LDM Strategic Holdings, Avila Blue and Sonvapor, neither the Department nor Intervenors—or any other member of the public —are able to determine the actual identity of either the management of the current permit applicant or, more specifically, the anonymous persons who, as reflected in the requested Change in Control and its Supplements, actually now control Mexico Pacific.
For example, incorporation records filed by LDM Strategic Holdings LLC with the Florida Department of State conceal the individuals that control its upstream ownership, as only the corporate registration agent is disclosed. Florida Department of State records for Avila Blue LLC names Ivan Rafael Sandrea Silva and Gabriela San Claudio Summonte as its managers and affiliation with both Avila Alternative Investments Ltd. and Alize Energy, and listing a Houston, Texas address. The Ontario, Canada Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery business records for Sonvapor LP records MPL AGS GP LLC as its general partner with an Austin, Texas corporate registration agent address. Texas records show that Mr. Armando Garza Sada controls MPL AGS, and therefore controls Sonvapor.
Intervenors respectfully submit that the public interest does not allow a change in control that reveals nothing but a shell company and unnamed individuals as the ultimate upstream owners. Mexico Pacific’s continuing non-disclosure is manifestly inconsistent with both the Department’s regulations and the public interest that they seek to protect. Accordingly, its Notice of Change in Control (including its Fourth Supplement) must be rejected.