Mexico oil thefts could hit $500m in 2011

Flag of Mexico --- Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

Thievery: oil thefts in Mexico soaring this year

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By News Wires

 18 August 2011 22:42 GMT

Mexico is set to lose nearly half a billion dollars to oil thefts this year if illegal pipeline taps continue to grow unchecked, the chief executive of state oil monopoly Pemex said on Thursday, according to a report.



Pemex director Juan Jose Suarez said organised crime gangs have stolen oil and gas worth $285 million so far this year, losses that could easily reach $490 million by the end of 2011, Reuters reported.

"We are losing the equivalent of about 20,000 barrels per day of crude," Suarez said at an event in Villahermosa, Tabasco, an oil-producing state on the Gulf of Mexico coast.

Mexico produces around 2.6 million barrels of oil per day.

"This is putting at risk communities where we operate," Reuters reported him as saying.

In December last year,…

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