AMLO’s anti-fuel theft plan works: Pemex loses less fuel than with Peña Nieto

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During AMLO’s government, Pemex’s non-operating losses are equivalent to 7.58% of the losses due to fuel theft with Peña Nieto.

The plan to stop the theft of fuel from the pipelines launched by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador works, since it avoided greater losses for Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and took a millionaire purse from organized crime and the communities for the illegal sale of gasoline and diesel.

Pemex had 7,827 million pesos in non-operating losses due to the volumetric deviation of the pipelines from January 1, 2019, to February 28, 2021, which are equivalent to only 7.58% of the losses due to the illegal extraction of fuel during the government of Enrique Peña Nieto.

From January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2018, the oil company recorded 103 thousand 273 billion pesos in non-operating losses, which arise from the extraction of a volume of fuel from a pipeline without authorization, according to information it had. access Forbes Mexico.

“With the information released, the government would seem that the plan to combat fuel theft has worked, but the theft of LP gas soared,” said Rubén Salazar Vázquez, CEO of Etellekt Consultores.

At first, it was thought that the theft of fuel was an exclusive practice of drug trafficking, but now behind the crime are gangs specialized in drilling pipelines and have the social support and the Mexican populations, said the consultant.

“At one point it was the cartels and they were overwhelmed by the communities, who literally live off the theft of fuel from the Pemex pipelines,” said the analyst.

The clear example that the populations near the pipelines participate in the illegal extraction of fuels was that they reported irregular urban development, he explained.

The general director of Etellekt recalled that the theft of fuel is dangerous for communities because they store it in their homes, sell it in an irregular way in public markets and on the roads

“Those who are benefiting from the theft of fuel are much larger structures such as populations,” added Rubén Salazar Vázquez.

“Los Zetas maintain a similar philosophy in the sense that it was good to steal fuel because it belonged to the nation. That organization was made up of former elite military personnel and they began to involve the communities, ”he said.

On December 27, 2019, Andrés Manuel López Obrador presented a plan to combat and eliminate the theft of hydrocarbons from Pemex, a crime that grew under the governments of Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto.

“With what has been stolen this year, it would be enough to finance 40% of a refinery or, to put it in other terms, three years of fuel theft is equivalent to a new refinery,” said the founder of Morena.

On average 600 pipes are lost a day, each containing 15 thousand liters of fuel, which in money means a loss of about 200 million pesos a day, said the former head of government of Mexico City.

“There is a hypothesis that of all the theft only 20 percent occurs with the milking of pipelines, it is a kind of screen, most of it has to do with a plan that is operated with the complicity of authorities, and with a network of distribution; So they are huachicoleros from below and huachicoleros from above, ”he said.

Behind the plan to curb fuel theft, 15 agencies are working, including the Ministry of National Defense, the Navy, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, the Interior, and the Public Function, to detect points of fuel leakage into the interior of Pemex.

Petróleos Mexicanos recorded non-operating losses due to volumetric deviation of 7,827 million pesos during the first 27 months of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

For former president Enrique Peña Nieto, fuel theft broke out socially in his last three years in office, as there were record losses for Pemex, and in many communities, they sold gasoline as if it were bread.

Petróleos Mexicanos lost 36 thousand 185 million pesos in 2018, had losses of 22 thousand 945 million pesos in 2017, and a shortfall of 10 thousand 325 million pesos due to the theft of fuels in 2016.

The following year, the decline in the Mexican oil company reached 9,478 million pesos, as well as in 2014 the loss totaled 14,811 million pesos.

Pemex reported $ 9.525 billion in non-operating losses due to volumetric deviation in 2013, the first year of Enrique Peña Nieto’s government. 

“The collateral effect of the strategy of the President of the Republic to combat the theft of gasoline and diesel was that now they steal LP gas, which is more dangerous and fortunately there have been no accidents or explosions due to drilling a gas pipeline,” said the general director by Etellekt.

Once they no longer found fuel in the pipelines, crime and the gangs of pipe-suckers helped by communities chose to steal LP gas from Pemex pipelines, explains the analyst on issues related to political violence and crimes against state companies. Mexican.

“The same President of the Republic in a press conference acknowledged that the theft of LP gas had exploded,” said the consultant. 

In 2019, they were already stealing LP gas and crime was growing, he says. In that year they illegally extracted 60 thousand barrels of gasoline and diesel, as well as of LP gas, there were more than 6 thousand barrels.

Source: forbes.com.mx

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