Much of the theft in recent years has been coordinated by the Zetas, the criminal gang based along the South Texas border that is among Mexico’s largest and most violent. The Zetas are accused of stealing the condensate that ended up in Houston-area refineries from northeastern Mexico’s Burgos Basin natural gas field. Pemex alleges the stolen products pass through checkpoints via traffickers using forged export documents.
The pilfering of Mexico’s petroleum wealth by criminal gangs and their cronies inside the energy industry continues to spike despite years of effort and many millions of dollars spent to curtail it.
Pemex, the Mexican government’s hydrocarbon monopoly, reports that theft of crude oil and petroleum products jumped some 18 percent in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2011, totaling more than 1.8 million barrels worth.
The rising theft also comes as Pemex presses for a jury trial in U.S. federal court against a number of Houston-linked companies for either knowingly or unknowingly trading in stolen petroleum products that have found their way into the United States, and specifically Texas, since 2006.
“All this pilfering of oil and gas has become a public security problem,” said David Shields, a Mexico City energy industry analyst. “Something has to be done. They can’t go on long like this.”
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