MEXICO CITY — One of the world’s biggest oil producers is facing a man-made crisis: Its gas stations are running out of gas.
There are mile-long lines at filling stations across central Mexico. In some states, public transportation has been halted. President Andr?s Manuel L?pez Obrador, facing his first major challenge, has urged the country not to panic.
But it was L?pez Obrador’s war on fuel trafficking that led to the current crisis — a fight against organized crime and corruption that has already proved complicated.
For years, Mexico has lost billions of dollars to fuel theft. Cartels hacked into pipelines each night, and corrupt employees of the country’s national oil company, Pemex, helped siphon away even more fuel from Pemex installations. Last year, Mexico lost an average of 60,000 barrels of fuel to theft per day, according to Etellekt, a risk consultancy that studies the phenomenon. The thieves earned their own nickname, born from Mexican slang: huachicoleros.
As L?pez Obrador began his crackdown on fuel theft this week, he directed the government to shift the transportation of petroleum away from pipelines, an attempt to protect the many gallons stolen by men using hammers and buckets. Instead, the government began using trucks and rail cars to transport fuel, often escorted by soldiers and police. That distribution method has proved to be slower and less reliable.
“There is enough gasoline in the country,” L?pez Obrador said to reassure the country at a Wednesday news conference. “But we cannot use the pipelines because there are networks that were created to steal gasoline, alternate networks.”
As the government tried to calm the nation, the fuel shortage appeared to be worsening. On television programs and in newspapers, it was a problem that easily eclipsed President Trump’s demand for a wall on Mexico’s northern border.
In the state of Guanajuato, the Associated Press reported 84 percent of gas stations were closed. In the state of Michoacan, some public buses have stopped running. Milenio, one of the country’s biggest newspapers, ran a banner headline on its site on Wednesday: “Crisis caused by oil theft.” The private sector has begun to feel the impact.
Still, security experts have praised L?pez Obrador’s willingness to take on fuel theft, a phenomenon that was largely ignored under previous administrations, as the problem spiraled out of control.
