Illegal taps on petroleum pipelines increased in both January and February compared to the same months last year despite the federal government’s crackdown on fuel theft. The state oil company reported that 1,342 new pipeline perforations were detected in February, an increase of 9.6% over the same month in 2018.
In January, a month when the federal government was implementing an anti-fuel theft strategy that caused widespread gasoline shortages, there were 1,519 new pipeline taps detected, a 45% increase compared to a year earlier. Hidalgo, where more than 100 people were killed in January by an explosion at a tapped pipeline, recorded the highest incidence of the crime in both months.
There were 994 illegal taps in the state in the two-month period or just under 35% of the total number that was detected across the country. México state recorded the second highest number of perforations, with 340, followed by Guanajuato with 287. Three weeks after he took office on December 1, President López Obrador began implementing a strategy aimed at combating high levels of fuel theft, a crime that costs Pemex billions of pesos a year.
The strategy included the closure of several major pipelines and the deployment of the military and Federal Police to protect fuel infrastructure.