Mexico to ship gas on trains, thieves siphon whole pipelines

Mexico’s president says that the government is acquiring 500 more tanker trucks to carry gasoline and diesel while pipelines are shut down to combat fuel-theft gangs and that officials are also arranging with private railroads to transport fuel.

After taking office Dec. 1, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched an offensive against the $3 billion per-year fuel theft industry, which has been stealing fuel by drilling taps into pipelines. The gangs even tried to break into a facility owned by the Pemex oil company to drill a tap there.

Lopez Obrador said Wednesday that at one pipeline, thieves didn’t just skim off part of the flow — they drilled so many taps they siphoned off the entire contents of the duct.

The pipeline shutdown has caused shortages at service stations.