Pemex Oil Company Lost $1.5 Billion to Theft in 2016 Mike LaSusa - InSight Crime
go to original February 6, 2017

Mexico’s oil thieves cost industry billions of dollars (CCTV America)

A recent report suggests Mexico's state oil company lost at least $1.5 billion to fuel theft last year, a figure that underscores the massive and growing scale of this criminal activity.

The estimate that $1.5 billion worth of fuel was stolen last year derives from calculations made by Animal Político based on data obtained through freedom of information requests.

According to the news outlet, the state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos, better known as Pemex, lost more than 2.2 billion liters (roughly 600 million gallons) of fuel to theft last year. That figure represents the largest annual total of stolen fuel recorded since 2009.

In all, Animal Político estimates that thieves have stolen more than 14.6 billion liters (roughly 3.9 billion gallons) of fuel - worth about $7.8 billion - since 2009. However, the media outlet notes that the actual value of the stolen fuel could be even higher, since its figures are calculated using the fuel's minimum average price in the year it was stolen.

The data compiled by Animal Político shows that fuel theft has increased in recent years. Just under 7 billion liters (about 1.8 billion gallons) were stolen between 2009 and 2012, while more than 7.6 billion liters (some 2 billion gallons) have been stolen since 2012 - an increase of about 10 percent.

As global fuel prices rose, so too did the value of contraband fuel. The fuel stolen between 2009 and 2012 was worth about $3 billion, while the fuel stolen since 2012 was worth about $4.7 billion.

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