Mexican Cartels Branch Into Fuel Theft, Threatening Energy Reform Gains Andrew Schneider - Houston Public Media
go to original November 3, 2014

Cocaine & Crude - VICE News sent Suroosh Alvi to Mexico to see the effects of cartel oil theft firsthand. (Vice)

“I was with the energy minister,” Tillerson recounted in a speech to the Greater Houston Partnership, “and he took note that Texas now has surpassed Mexico in oil production. He says they’re going to fix that.” (Greater Houston Partnership/David Brown)

Earlier this month, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson visited Mexico City to discuss Mexico’s energy reforms with members of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s government.

“I was with the energy minister,” Tillerson recounted in a speech to the Greater Houston Partnership, “and he took note that Texas now has surpassed Mexico in oil production. He says they’re going to fix that.”

Geologists believe Mexico’s shale plays may be some of the richest in the world. Pemex, the state-owned oil giant, lacks the technology and the expertise for fracking and horizontal drilling. The recent changes in Mexican law mean U.S. companies will soon be able to fill the gap.

“Our forecast is that Texas will add about 217,000 jobs,” says Nathaniel Karp, chief U.S. economist for BBVA Compass, “and [the state’s] GDP will increase $45.4 billion between 2015 and 2018.”

But there’s a catch. Mexico’s shale plays are located in states overrun by organized crime. “The Burgos Basin, which is the continuation of the Eagle Ford Basin, is actually one of the most unstable and crime-riddled areas in Mexico,” says Tony Payan, director of the Mexico Center at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

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