Fuel theft strategy strands 60 oil tankers unable to unload fuel

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January 11, 2019

Veracruz is one of the ports were tankers are waiting to unload. — Veracruz is one of the ports where tankers are waiting to unload.

The federal government’s anti-fuel theft strategy has not only stranded motorists unable to buy gasoline but ships as well: at least 60 oil tankers are stranded at Mexico’s principal ports, unable to unload their fuel.

According to ship tracking website Marine Traffic, the tankers are stuck at the ports of Tuxpan, Veracruz, Altamira, Acapulco, Coatzacoalcos, Lázaro Cárdenas, Manzanillo, Salina Cruz, Tampico, Mazatlán, Guaymas, La Paz, Ensenada and Campeche.

Two-thirds of the stranded tankers are located at just two Gulf of Mexico ports — Veracruz, where 31 are waiting to unload, and Tuxpan, where there are nine.

Shipping experts told the newspaper Milenio that the tankers are unable to unload their cargo because port storage facilities are full due to the closure of petroleum pipelines.

As part of the strategy to combat fuel theft, the government is making greater use of tanker trucks to transport fuel rather than pipelines, a move that has caused gasoline shortages in at least 10 states.

“. . . Right now, all [the storage facilities] are full, by orders of our president the pipelines are shut, that’s all we know at the moment,” said Guillermo Pancardo, a state oil company employee.

Milenio confirmed that nine oil tankers at the port of Tuxpan, Veracruz, are currently unable to unload their fuel.

Port officials said that one of the ships, Tambourin, has been waiting to offload its cargo for 41 days.

In total, the officials said, there are 315,000 tonnes of fuel waiting to be unloaded at Tuxpan so that it can be distributed to different parts of the country.

The congestion problem at the port, located about 300 kilometers north of Veracruz, is set to get worse, with a Singaporean tanker expected to arrive tomorrow from Texas and a Greek ship expected Sunday from Louisiana.

The pipeline between Tuxpan and Mexico City is currently closed because, according to President López Obrador, it has been damaged by repeated acts of sabotage.

Gonzalo Monrroy, manager of energy consultancy GMEC, said that a single oil tanker carries between 350,000 and 400,000 barrels of fuel and costs between US $30,000 and $50,000 a day to operate, even if it is inactive.

“Part of this bottleneck is due to Pemex, the closure of pipelines . . . [Fuel] inventory levels are becoming increasingly worrying, it’s an issue that Pemex and the Secretariat of Energy have to resolve quickly,” he said.

But federal Energy Secretary Rocio Nahle denied yesterday that there is a problem at the nation’s ports.

“We are not aware of an issue in the unloading of gasoline . . .” she said.

However, López Obrador accepted that there are tankers “waiting” at some ports but he rejected the claim that they are stranded.

“It’s only in Coatzacoalcos and Tuxpan,” the president told reporters yesterday.

Asked whether the tankers are stranded, López Obrador responded: “No, not necessarily, there is a lot of invalid, false information . . . ”

At his daily press conference this morning, the president pledged that the situation at Mexico’s ports and gas stations would return to normal soon.

“. . . Unfortunately, we’re buying 600,000 barrels [of gasoline] a day . . .Ships are constantly coming into the maritime terminals . . . That’s why I say that we don’t have a gasoline shortage problem, we have gasoline to last a long time. The only issue is one of distribution to the interior of the country due to sabotage of the pipelines and the decision to no longer allow the theft of fuel.”

Source: Milenio (sp)

Economic impact of fuel shortages will widen if they continue

By

MND Staff

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January 10, 2019

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The longer gas stations remain closed, the greater the economic fallout.

Gas stations and the transportation sector are already taking a heavy financial hit from the prolonged and widespread fuel shortage but if it continues into next week, the impact on the economy will widen, business groups warn.

Losses incurred by gas stations in 11 affected states have reached 10 billion pesos (US $522.3 million), according to the Mexican Association of Gas Station Owners (Amegas).

Stations in Jalisco have taken the biggest hit, the organization said, with losses totaling an estimated 3 billion pesos (US $156.7 million).

“In Jalisco, 300 million pesos [worth of fuel] is sold in a single day. We’ve gone 10 days in which almost no gasoline has been sold . . .” Amegas said.

Gas stations in Michoacán, Hidalgo, Guanajuato, México state, Querétaro, Mexico City and Puebla, among other states, have also lost significant revenue.

Luz María Jiménez, president of the Puebla and Tlaxcala Gas Station Owners Association, said that she had appealed directly to the state oil company to send more fuel, more quickly.

“The priority for us is for stations that don’t have gasoline to be supplied. Our business is to sell gasoline and the only thing we want is gasoline,” she told a Puebla radio station yesterday.

The Confederation of Chambers of Commerce, Services and Tourism (Concanaco-Servytur) said that public transit operators in many affected states have been forced to take at least part of their fleets off the road.

In a statement, the business group added that while supermarkets, department stores and other stores haven’t yet reported product shortages, if the gasoline shortage “extends for another week . . .we’ll get to that point.”

Concanaco president José Manuel López Campos said that small and medium-sized businesses would be affected the most if the fuel shortage doesn’t come to an end soon, pointing out that they are also dealing with increases to electricity rates and the minimum wage.

Nathan Poplawsky, president of the Mexico City Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism (Canaco-CDMX), called on the federal government to resolve the shortage problem promptly in order to avoid an impact on “public transportation, the transportation of goods and the supply of raw materials as well as the cancellation of services.”

The Confederation of Industrial Chambers (Concamin) said that companies in México state, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato and Querétaro have already reported problems distributing products such as dairy, vegetables and beverages.

Tourism is another sector that will likely suffer as fuel shortages continue.

Hotels in León, Guanajuato, where the 2019 State Fair starts tomorrow, have reported that reservations are down 45% on last year’s numbers. The fuel shortage in Guanajuato and surrounding states has been identified as the cause of the weak interest.

“We’re very worried . . . because it’s the fair that we’re known for in the whole country, we [usually] have [a lot of] visitors and buyers who come to the city,” said Gabino Fernández Hernández, head of the León branch of the Mexican Chamber of Commerce.

Juan Pablo Castañón, president of the influential Business Coordinating Council (CCE), told Milenio Television yesterday that the fuel shortage had started to affect the manufacturing sector.

“Not just workers in their movements to the workplace, but also production plants, particularly in the auto industry, which isn’t able to get enough fuel for new vehicles,” he said.

Alfredo Arzola, director of the automotive industry hub in Guanajuato, told the news agency Reuters that assembly plants could start idling in a week if a fix to the shortage problem isn’t found.

“Investments are being put at risk,” he said.

Castañón called on the federal government to collaborate with the private sector to import more gasoline in order to get more fuel to gas stations in affected states.

“Pemex can’t do it alone . . . A comprehensive plan with specific measures and timeframes is needed. In the private sector, we want to collaborate to regularize [the situation] as quickly as possible,” he said.

Source: Sin Embargo (sp)

Despite anti-theft campaign, life and pipeline taps carry on in Texmelucan

By

MND Staff

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January 10, 2019

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It's business as usual in Texmelucan, where thieves openly transport stolen fuel.

President López Obrador declared this week that the federal government’s anti-fuel theft strategy is yielding impressive results, albeit with the unintended consequence of generating widespread gasoline shortages.

Before the plan was implemented, he said on Monday, enough fuel to fill 787 tanker trucks was stolen daily.

Now that figure has been reduced to 177 tankers a day, he said, boasting that the strategy had already generated savings of 2.5 billion pesos (around US $130 million).

But in Mexico’s capital huachicolera, or fuel-theft capital, illegal pipeline taps and the distribution and sale of stolen gasoline continue unabated.

The only thing that has changed in San Martín Texmelucan, Puebla, is the fuel thieves’ schedule.

Hours before López Obrador addresses reporters at his daily 7:00am press conference, the thieves, known as huachicoleros or picadores de ductos (pipeline picadors), are already at work.

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One of them told the newspaper Milenio that he and his accomplices now go out “at two or three in the morning to avoid [the police and military] operations,” explaining everything’s “calm at that time.”

Identified only as Alberto, the thief – who learned his dangerous and illegal trade in Tierra Blanca, Veracruz, while working with the Zetas drug cartel – explained the entire pipeline tapping process.

Pemex’s “no digging” signs make the pipelines easy to find, he said, explaining that they are usually buried just a meter or so underground.

Once a pipeline is located, Alberto gets to work to perforate it, with three halcones – hawks or lookouts – positioned strategically to warn of any approaching authorities.

“First you solder on a nipple . . . then you put on a carbon steel valve and a clamp . . .” he explained.

Once the pipeline has been pierced, the fuel shoots up into the air, Alberto said. “. . . we immediately have to connect a hose to start to fill the tanks.”

The pipeline picador, who has 10 years’ experience in Puebla, Veracruz and Tamaulipas, said he has never received any instructions or assistance from employees of the state oil company, Pemex.

“They have nothing to do with it, one just learns how to do it,” he said, adding that the method he uses to tap pipelines is “safer and faster” than the one used “15 years ago.”

Asked what he does if the authorities arrive during the course of his work, Alberto responded: “If they’re very close, well, we run.”

Each pipeline tap, which Alberto can complete in just half an hour, yields enough fuel to fill two 30,000-liter tanker trucks.

The expert driller, who works with different gangs of fuel thieves, charges 5,000 pesos (US $260) for his services.

The drivers of the tankers filled with the illicitly obtained fuel earn between 500 and 1,000 pesos (US $26 to $52) for each load they transport, Alberto said.

Fuel thieves told Milenio that stolen fuel from San Martín Texmelucan, which is located about 40 kilometers northwest of Puebla city, sells for 10 pesos a liter.

Three pesos goes to the owner of the land where the pipeline was perforated, three pesos goes to security expenses and the remaining four pesos is profit for the thieves themselves.

Video recorded by Milenio shows vehicles transporting stolen fuel in barrels traveling on the main highway leading into Texmelucan.

At one point in the footage, a small truck transporting stolen fuel passes an army jeep transporting soldiers deployed to combat fuel theft.

However, halcones patrol the streets on motorcycles to alert criminal gangs of the whereabouts of authorities.

According to Milenio, a large portion of the population of Texmelucan is involved in the illicit fuel trade in one way or another.

If the owners of land where pipelines are located refuse to grant access to fuel thieves, they are routinely threatened. Some land owners who have declined to cooperate have seen their properties set alight while others have been killed.

Fuel theft is estimated to have cost Mexico 97 billion pesos (US $5 billion at today’s exchange rate) during former president Enrique Peña Nieto’s six-year term.

Combating the crime is one of the biggest challenges faced by the new federal government.

Gangs involved in fuel-theft often clash with authorities and each other, causing the homicide rate in some parts of the country, such as Guanajuato, to surge.

Source: Milenio (sp)

4,000 troops will safeguard 1,600 kilometers of Pemex pipelines

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MND Staff

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January 10, 2019

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soldier stands guard at pemex — Troops are now watching over Pemex facilities but pipelines are being included in their mandate.

An additional 4,000 troops will be deployed to safeguard Pemex pipelines against theft, President López Obrador announced today.

Around 4,000 soldiers and marines are already guarding Mexico’s oil refineries and other facilities operated by the state oil company as part of the federal government’s anti-fuel theft strategy.

“We’re going to strengthen surveillance of 1,600 kilometers of pipelines . . . the six main pipelines. We’re going to continue to implement the actions that are necessary . . .We’re going to confront this scourge,” López Obrador told reporters at his daily press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City.

He said that surveillance bases will be set up along the pipeline network from which the military will carry out their anti-fuel theft operations.

López Obrador also called on people complicit with fuel thieves known as huachicoleros to stop supporting the crime.

“I ask the members of the communities and the towns through which the pipelines run to help us. If before, due to a lack of opportunities, you collaborated with those who devote themselves to stealing fuel, don’t do it anymore, don’t be complicit,” he said.

“Things have changed now. Public servants don’t steal the people’s money anymore and nobody should dedicate themselves to robbery. If you earned income by participating in illegal activities, now you’ll get those same resources in a clean way through [government] programs and scholarships,” the president added.

López Obrador has made combating fuel theft, which costs public coffers billions of pesos a year, an early priority for his government.

But the decision to close off pipelines and instead make greater use of tanker trucks to transport fuel has caused a gasoline shortage crisis that has now affected at least 10 states.

The shortage has extended to Mexico City, where long lines of concerned motorists have been seen at gas stations yesterday and today.

López Obrador said this morning that “the gasoline shortage problem in Mexico City was caused because there was a sabotage of a pipeline . . . between Tuxpan [Veracruz] and Azcapotzalco,” a northern borough in the capital.

“It was already repaired, last night it was working until 10, we had anticipated that at five in the morning today we would be able to regularize supply but at 10 last night the pipeline was damaged again,” he added.

However, the president said there is enough gasoline to meet demand in Mexico City, explaining that it only needs to be distributed to gas stations.

He reiterated that the shortage in some parts of the country is due to logistics rather than supply and asserted that the problem would soon end.

“. . . There’s no problem with supply and soon we’re going to resolve the shortage [problem] in some gas stations and distribution centers. We’re confident that everything is going to turn out well, the corrupt will not defeat us,” López Obrador said.

According to the Secretariat of Energy (Sener), low fuel inventories in some parts of the country and declining oil production have also contributed to the gasoline shortage.

Pemex has been unable to replenish reserves quickly enough to prevent the shortages in several states from occurring because they don’t have enough tanker trucks.

Source: El Universal (sp), Animal Político (sp), El Economista (sp)

Band’s impromptu performance lightens atmosphere at gas station

By

Madison Koen

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January 10, 2019

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A brass band entertains motorists in Morelia early Wednesday morning.

Dozens of frustrated motorists waiting for gasoline in Michoacán early Wednesday morning had their spirits raised by a brass band and its impromptu performance at a gas station in Morelia.

Members of the Cruz de la Candelaria, a band that played in years past with iconic singer Joan Sebastian, performed at the station on Nocupétaro avenue for motorists who had been waiting in line to fill their tanks, in some cases for several days.

A video circulating on social media showed one of the band members dancing with a police officer, which prompted drivers to get out of their vehicles and join the spontaneous party.

The video was played thousands of times on Facebook, where commenters applauded the musicians.

Lines have been long at gas stations in Michoacán’s capital since last week when President López Obrador implemented a new strategy to combat pipeline theft.

Since then, fuel has been transported by tanker truck, significantly slowing down distribution to gas stations.

Source: Vanguardia (sp), Sin Embargo (sp)

Fuel shortage has police swapping their cars for bicycles and horses

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César Hernández

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January 10, 2019

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Neza's finest rolled yesterday on bicycles.

Police forces in states facing fuel shortages are exchanging their patrol cars for bicycles and in, at least one case, horses.

Some officers in Nezahualcóyotl, México state, have abandoned their vehicles and taken to patrolling on bicycles as municipal authorities ration fuel and prioritize its use in response to shortages.

Some vehicles will remain on patrol but 250 officers on the force will perform their duties on two wheels.

Police chief Jorge Amador Amador said those assigned to the bike patrol are physically prepared for their new wheels.

Half of the 40 gas stations in Nezahualcóyotl, a municipality with more than two million inhabitants, have closed due to the fuel shortage, and what fuel is available for official use will be used carefully.

The chief told the newspaper El Universal that the local government is in contact with gas station operators to ensure that fuel is to be used exclusively for security, rescue and citizen protection operations, as well as garbage pickup.

Police in Yuriria, Guanajuato, on bicycles, on horses, on foot.

“. . . Ambulances, the fire department and police patrol cars will have priority use of what little fuel is available,” said Amador.

A police vehicle uses 45 liters of gasoline every day, while a motorcycle needs 10, but the vehicles will be rationed half that.

“This program is preventative; we’ve reduced the use of patrol cars, not completely, we just reduced it to make [gasoline] last as long as possible,” explained Amador.

In Yuriria, Guanajuato, 16 horses and 10 bicycles have been pressed into service, and some officers are patrolling on foot.

In Michoacán, which has been paralyzed by gasoline shortages for 17 days, one-half of all state police vehicles are idle due to the lack of fuel, the state security chief said this morning.

Source: El Universal (sp), AM (sp)

Gas shortage reaches Nayarit; at least 10 states now affected

By

MND Staff

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January 10, 2019

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Hundreds of containers are lined up ready for the next shipment of gasoline to Morelia, Michoacán.

The gasoline shortage plaguing several states has reached Nayarit, the mayor of Tepic announced yesterday.

“Nayarit was one of the states that didn’t have a shortage . . . [but] yesterday [Tuesday] we were informed by the suppliers, by the gas station owners, that gasoline for Tepic hadn’t been supplied this week,” Francisco Castellón Fonseca said.

“It’s worrying in the sense that there is no certainty about when the shortage will end so it generates the opposite effect, in other words, everyone wants to fill up their tank and that generates excessive demand,” he added.

As a precautionary measure, the mayor said he had given instructions for only police cars and sweeper trucks to be supplied with gasoline in the case of rationing.

Castellón explained that he was concerned about the consequences of a prolonged shortage.

“I’m worried because if the shortage continues it could generate real problems . . . with public services, security and of course the supply of food and goods to different parts of the country,” he said.

The fuel shortage, which was first reported at the end of last year, has now affected more than 10 states in central, western and northern Mexico.

President López Obrador and Energy Secretary Rocio Nahle have stressed that the shortage is due to logistics rather than a lack of supply.

As part of its strategy to combat fuel theft, the federal government has altered the way in which gasoline is distributed, making greater use of tanker trucks rather than pipelines, some of which have been closed completely.

In the states where the shortage has been most acute, such as Michoacán, Guanajuato and Jalisco, growing levels of absenteeism from work and school have been reported.

Castellón, who is also the president of AALMAC, a national association of municipal governments, said that he had been informed that “several municipalities . . . are considering suspending classes.”

Enrique Vargas del Villar, president of the National Association of Mayors (ANAC), said that if the shortage continues, many municipalities will be forced to shut down public services, warning that the provision of public security would be one of the first areas hit.

The president of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE), Juan Pablo Castañón, said yesterday that it was “obvious” that the state oil company couldn’t resolve the shortage problem on its own and urged the federal government to collaborate with the private sector to import more gasoline.

López Obrador told reporters at the National Palace this morning that in the fight against fuel theft there will be “no step backward,” explaining that an additional 4,000 members of the military will be deployed to protect the nation’s petroleum pipelines against illegal taps by criminal gangs.

“We’re going to strengthen surveillance of 1,600 kilometers of pipelines . . . We’re going to continue to implement the actions that are necessary . . . We’re going to confront this scourge.”

Source: Reforma (sp), Milenio (sp), El Universal (sp)

Battle between warring cartels leaves 21 dead in Tamaulipas

By

César Hernández

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January 10, 2019

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Burned trucks at the scene of Tamaulipas battle.

Inter-gang warfare in Tamaulipas left 21 people dead after a battle in the border municipality of Miguel Alemán.

State Attorney General Irving Barrios said yesterday’s discovery of the bodies followed a missing persons report filed by a local woman looking for her husband.

At the same time, authorities received a report of two rival criminal gangs embroiled in a shootout in the region.

Fifteen of the bodies were burned or partially burned, said the Attorney General.

They were found strewn around seven vehicles that had been set on fire.

Barrios explained that the warring parties have been identified as the Gulf and Northeast cartels, which are fighting for territorial control in that part of Tamaulipas.

The Attorney General also said that some of the dead were wearing uniforms similar to those worn by marines.

No weapons were found, leading authorities to believe that the killers took them away after setting the scene on fire.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Suspected thief branded with a hot iron in Ecatepec

By

Madison Koen

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January 10, 2019

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A suspected thief is branded on his back. — The suspect is held down as the brand is applied on his back.

Impunity and a weak justice system have led to a surge in the number of suspected criminals lynched by angry citizens, and nowhere more than in the municipality of Ecatepec in the state of México.

By one estimate, it accounts for 40% of the total number of lynchings, a figure that — by another estimate — has reached some 800 in the last four years.

But the latest attack on a suspected thief took a twist this week: he was branded like cattle instead, according to a video that surfaced on social media.

Residents of Ecatepec bound, blindfolded and held the man down while they burned the message “Thief” on his back.

The man was allegedly caught in the act ofstealing fuel from a local family, a commodity that is in short supply in some regions of the country following the closure of Pemex pipelines in an operation against petroleum theft.

In the video, one of the attackers can be heard telling the suspected thief, who is crying in pain, to “shut up” as the iron burns the words into his skin. Another tells him, “[We’re doing this] because you’re a thief, pretty boy. And I’m not going to charge you for the tattoo.”

Article 17 of the Mexican constitution prohibits acts of vigilante justice, which are more and more common with high levels of insecurity and continued impunity.

But like every other crime, it is rarely prosecuted.

Source: El Sol de México (sp), Excelsior (sp)

Department of culture will cut millions of pesos in ‘superfluous’ spending

By

MND Staff

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January 9, 2019

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tula archaeological site — Culture budget spending on hiring cars for officials was enough to maintain the Tula archaeological site for one year.

The new secretary of culture has vowed to cut “superfluous” spending by federal cultural agencies.

During the six-year term of the previous federal government, organizations funded by the Secretariat of Culture, including the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA) and the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), spent an average of 214.4 million pesos (US $11.1 million) a year on parties and events, Mother’s Day gifts, snacks and meals, flowers, bottled water, hired cars, parking, prizes and other non-essential activities and items.

During a meeting with the culture committee of the lower house of Congress in December, Alejandra Frausto guaranteed that under the government led by President López Obrador there would be savings on such “superfluous” expenses.

Days later, the Secretariat of Culture’s social communication director criticized the excessive spending in a post on his personal Facebook page, according to a report published today by the newspaper El Universal.

Antonio Martínez wrote that bottled water was costing the secretariat 600,000 pesos (US $31,200) a year, an amount which he said was enough to “provide a municipal library with a collection” of books.

“A little over 30 million pesos [US $1.6 million]” is allocated to hiring cars for “high-ranking officials,” he wrote, charging that was enough for the annual “conservation and management of the Tula [Hidalgo] archaeological zone.”

However, putting an end to excessive spending that is not directly related to cultural agencies’ core business could be difficult as many of the perks provided to employees are mandated by union agreements.

The Secretariat of Culture has not yet specified which expenses will be terminated.

The federal department was allocated just under 12.9 billion pesos (US $671.2 million) in the government’s 2019 budget, a cut of just over 5% compared to its 2018 funding.

However, in a December 17 statement, the secretariat said that the amount was enough, explaining that it would eliminate “burdensome expenses . . . redirect spending to priority areas and implement a strong policy of creation, development and cultural promotion.”

Source: El Universal (sp)