Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
said on Tuesday that widespread fuel theft extended to oil drilling platforms and he pledged to take actions to alleviate shortages sparked by his crackdown on gasoline thieves.
López Obrador said there had been “acts of sabotage at crude oil drilling platforms,” without providing further details.
“We have identified the problem and we are also going to face it,” he said at a press conference.
President López Obrador also revealed that deposits of stolen fuel were found at the construction site of the cancelled New International Airport (NAIM) in the basin of Texcoco .
“When the airport in Texcoco was being built, construction companies used stolen fuel deposits,” he stated, adding that the complicity of contractors and private companies in fuel theft networks was outrageous.
In a bid to halt rampant fuel theft, López Obrador has ordered the closure of important fuel pipelines, which has caused shortages at gas stations and concerns of an impact to the economy if the shortfalls are prolonged .
López Obrador said that the government was looking at purchasing an additional 500 tanker trucks to distribute gasoline and that officials were asking private companies to increase fuel imports.
“Very soon things will go back to normal,” he said. “We are on the way to solving the problem in a definitive way.”
López Obrador’s offensive against fuel robbers marks the leftist’s first major effort to tackle entrenched corruption since taking office on Dec. 1 .
A poll released last weekend showed the crackdown was polarizing the population, though more people support the measure than oppose it.
Fuel inventories have been accumulating at major oil terminals and Mexico’s freight transport association expects a contingency plan aimed at speeding up gasoline distribution that began over the weekend will help ease bottlenecks.
On the other hand, there is a growing risk of sabotage at Pemex facilities and freight vehicles .
Last weekend, the government assigned 8,300 police and 1,400 security vehicles to safeguard fuel trucks so they can deliver to gas stations, said Mexico’s National Chamber of Freight Transport (CANACAR) .
A key pipeline running from the port of Tuxpan in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz to Mexico City was shut down on Thursday night and repairs were underway, López Obrador said on Friday.
The pipeline was hit at daybreak on Thursday and repaired, only to suffer another rupture at 11 p.m., he said.
“There’s sabotage,” he said. “Let’s see who gets tired first.”
The series of disruptions to the pipeline in recent days had caused shortfalls in supply for Mexico City and surrounding states.
Cars lined up by the dozen at stations throughout the capital on Friday, many before dawn, fearing that the shortages that fanned into the megacity last week from nearby states could persist.
Local television showed angry protesters blocking a major roadway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa neighborhood.
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