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In recent years, several organized-crime gangs have stolen fuel from fields in the Burgos region, which encompasses parts of the northern border states of Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas and Coahuila.
The criminals either steal the gas condensates from storage facilities or hijack tanker trucks and then move the fuel across the border into theUnited States.
According to Pemex, roughly $300 million worth of gas condensates extracted from the Burgos Basin has been stolen since 2006.
Mexico is one of the world's largest oil producers, while roughly 30 percent of the government's budget comes from revenue generated by Pemex.
A Petroleos Mexicanos unit sued 11 U.S. firms over claims they helped Mexican drug cartels smuggle and re-sell more than $300 million in natural gas liquids stolen from Mexico’s northern oilfields into the U.S.
Pemex Exploracion y Produccion claims in its complaint that businessmen from Texas andUtah conspired to sell its stolen natural gas condensate to U.S. end users, including Plains All American Pipeline LP (PAA), SemCrude LP and Western Refining Co. Those end users were “innocent” buyers of the condensate, according to the complaint.
“All of the defendants have participated and profited -- knowingly or unwittingly -- in the trafficking of stolen condensate in the United States and have thereby encouraged and facilitated the Mexican organized crime groups that stole the condensate,” Mark Maney, Pemex’s lawyer, said in the complaint filed May 29 in federal court in Houston.
“As long as there is a U.S. market for stolen Mexican condensate, the thievery will continue,” Maney said in the complaint.
Pemex accused owners of Saint James Oil Inc. of Sandy, Utah, and Superior Crude Gathering Inc. of Corpus Christi, Texas, of knowingly plotting with a trio of American businessmen who the company says have admitted to conspiring to smuggle stolen Mexican natural gas liquids into the U.S.
Mexican Tanker Trucks
The Americans transferred the illegal feedstocks from Mexican tanker trucks, which the drug gangs often hijacked at gunpoint, into tankers and storage terminals in the U.S., according to Pemex’s complaint. The conspirators bribed Mexican officials and forged documents to facilitate border crossings and resale to U.S. refiners, Pemex alleged. More than 140 individuals -- including two border guards -- have been criminally charged by Mexican authorities probing the scheme, the company said.
Pemex said any U.S. firm buying Mexican condensate from a middleman must have known it might be trafficking in stolen property, as Mexican law has forbidden the sale of such product by anyone other than an official Pemex broker since 2006, according to the complaint.
Gas condensate is a pure liquid produced in conjunction with some natural gas that competes directly with light crude oil as a feedstock for refineries and petrochemical plants.
The Mexican agency’s suit asks that the three U.S. end users repay Mexico only for the value of the allegedly stolen feedstocks Pemex claims the firms “ignorantly” purchased through the scheme.
‘Knowing Conspirators’
Pemex, however, seeks to hold the other, so-called “knowing conspirators” financially responsible for all $300 million in natural gas liquids the Mexican government calculates drug gangs have stolen and resold into the U.S. since 2006.
Roy Lamoreaux, a spokesman for Plains All American Pipeline, didn’t immediately return a call today seeking comment on Pemex’s suit. Jennifer Gordon, a SemCrude spokeswoman, and Jeffrey Beyersdorfer, the investor relations director for Western Refining Co., didn’t immediately return voice-mail messages seeking comment after regular business hours.
Lawyers for the owners of Saint James Oil and Superior Crude Gathering couldn’t be immediately located.
The case is Pemex Exploracion y Produccion v. Big Star Gathering Ltd., 11-cv-02019, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Laurel Brubaker Calkins in Houston atlaurel@calkins.us.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
The state-owned oil giant said criminal groups, many with links to drug cartels looking to diversify their illicit income, are responsible for the thefts that cut into company earnings.
"Organized crime stands out in both the increase in the illegal pipeline taps and the increase in volume stolen," the report said.
Pemex found 1,324 incidents of pipeline breaches last year, more than double the 631 taps detected in 2010, as thieves become more sophisticated in their techniques, often siphoning oil from a single pipeline in several different places.
The company credits improved surveillance and security for the jump in detections.
The illegal taps, sometimes on dangerous natural gas pipelines, have lead to deadly explosions and fires in the past.
Pemex's exploration and production arm (PEP) is suing a slew of companies in the United States for selling up to $300 million worth of natural gas condensates stolen from northern Mexico and smuggled across the border.
Included in the claim are oil giants Royal Dutch Shell Plc and ConocoPhillips, which Pemex says unwittingly bought the stolen goods from intermediaries.
Mexico, the world's No. 7 oil producer has struggled to increased oil output above around 2.55 million bpd per year, with a lack of new discoveries failing to quickly replace output lost from a natural decline at the country's largest fields.
Pemex fell short of its goal to drill 54 new oil and gas wells in 2011, only completing 33 in the year, the report said, citing mechanical problems at some areas.
* Illegal pipeline taps double in 2011 from previous year
* State oil company falls short of drilling target
MEXICO CITY, April 23 (Reuters) - Criminals stole 55 percent more fuel from Mexican pipelines in 2011, as organized crime gangs sought more profits from stolen oil and gas, state oil monopoly Pemex reported.
Last year, the company lost just over 3.35 million barrels of fuel, up from more than 2.16 million barrels stolen in 2010, Pemex said in an annual report given to the lower house of congress and seen by Reuters on Monday.
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