Crowds attack Mexico pipelines, steal diesel with buckets

[rooster59]

Crowds attack Mexico pipelines, steal diesel with buckets

MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press


MEXICO CITY (AP) — Rebellious crowds of townspeople in a rural area in central Mexico are defying police and soldiers to steal diesel from illegally tapped pipelines, creating what officials call an imminent threat of tragedies like fires that have burned dozens of people at other sites in Mexico.

The sight of a crowd of men, women and youths gathered around a huge pool of diesel with buckets in the central state of Tlaxcala exemplifies the trend in pipeline thefts, which rose 52 percent in 2015 to reach a rate of nearly 15 illegal taps per day across the country.

Alejandro Espejel, the spokesman for the city of Calpulalpan, said people in several villages have made a habit of either perforating pipelines or taking advantage of taps created by professional fuel thieves.

They have broken through security perimeters on almost two dozen occasions in the last year, built dams to create diesel containment ponds and hauled up fuel by the bucketful to sell. Espejel said the villagers have defied orders by police and security authorities to stop the practice.

"The people swear at the state police, the federal police and even the soldiers. They get in any way they can" to cordoned off areas where fuel spills occur.

In a video of one mass fuel theft posted by the newspaper Sol de Tlaxcala this week, dozens of people can be seen in a festive atmosphere gathered around the banks of a narrow gully, tossing buckets down into a swimming-pool sized pond of diesel, and pulling the full buckets back up with a rope. The villagers can then be seen carrying the buckets up a muddy slope on their shoulders, to fill a larger container.

While the video had no date, Espejel confirmed the incident happened in December at a spot where a 12-inch pipeline operated by the state-owned oil company, Pemex, crosses a gully or narrow stream bed.

Espejel said residents had apparently drilled into the pipeline, dammed up the stream bed, and created a pond full of fuel.

A Pemex official who was not authorized to be quoted by name confirmed that the incident had occurred, and said the danger was enormous, for what are likely to be tiny profits.

"They have to store it, and let it settle, because the diesel has grass, and dirt, and even water in it," said the official. "They can't sell it for anywhere near the official price (about 80 cents per liter, or $3.10 per gallon), so they maybe sell it for half that."

"It is usually people from rural hamlets who live near the pipeline," said the official. Some villagers allegedly milked pipelines by inserting wooden stoppers into illegal tap holes, and opening them when they wanted to get fuel.

In March 2015, villagers in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco state broke through a police perimeter and then chased off firefighters so they could steal gasoline from a crashed tanker truck. The spilled fuel ignited, burning 21 people so severely they later died.

And in December, five people in Tabasco died from a fire that broke out near where people were using an illegal tap to gather fuel on Dec. 22.

The Pemex official said something as simple as a motorcycle engine could ignite spilled fuel.

While such community fuel thefts might once have been for the villagers' own use, there is mounting evidence the fuel — especially diesel — is being re-sold.

"These people are now very organized. They have pickup trucks with fuel containers waiting on the road outside," Espejel said. "They are 1,000-liter (265-gallon) containers."

Fuel thefts from state-run pipelines jumped from 3,674 in 2014 to 5,574 in 2015, according to Pemex.

-- (c) Associated Press 2016-01-16

[shirtless]

To funny , the petrol criminals will be up in arms over this, yet they steal our money through manipulating the market every day.I like the message its sending..

[alfalfa19]

good for them, as long as they don't get incinerated. i don't blame them one tiny bit.

[elgordo38]

To funny , the petrol criminals will be up in arms over this, yet they steal our money through manipulating the market every day.I like the message its sending..

Yes the message is things are to the desperation point in the world. The signs are all over. The stock market is a lagging indicator.

[sanukjim]

And then some dummy shows up with his bucket while smoking and in the blast a few dozen will fry

[MaeJoMTB]

And then some dummy shows up with his bucket while smoking and in the blast a few dozen will fry

Diesel isn't flammable.

Throw a lighted match in a bucket of diesel, and the match goes out.

[ggt]

Desperate people are unconcerned about the laws of the land or police...they are concerned about finding a way to feed their families...

This is just the beginning...the world is poised for insurrection, anarchy, and chaos as economies sink and people loose their jobs...IMHO

[Usernames]

Mexico's per capita gdp is 66th in the world, ten spots above Thailand. And when it comes to natural resources, climate, and geographical proximity to the US, it is extremely wealthy. The problem is with its culture of corruption and violence, symbolized with this theft. Somebody is going to pay for it, and it will not be the people at either end of the pipeline. It will be consumers, and eventually the cost in goods, transportation, and services will dribble back down to these people stealing from the pipeline, probably costing them quite a bit more than what they got out of a few buckets of diesel.

[sanukjim]

And then some dummy shows up with his bucket while smoking and in the blast a few dozen will fry

Diesel isn't flammable.

Throw a lighted match in a bucket of diesel, and the match goes out.

But the fumes in the area are.

Edited January 16, 2016 by sanukjim

[ozyjon]

illegally tapped pipelines,

i don't get it, is it before or after it's refined ?

[SoiBiker]

And then some dummy shows up with his bucket while smoking and in the blast a few dozen will fry

Diesel isn't flammable.

Throw a lighted match in a bucket of diesel, and the match goes out.

But the fumes in the area are.

No, they're not. Unless that area is over about 60 degrees C, or has been pressurised somehow.

[loonytune]

To funny , the petrol criminals will be up in arms over this, yet they steal our money through manipulating the market every day.I like the message its sending..

Yes the message is things are to the desperation point in the world. The signs are all over. The stock market is a lagging indicator.

yes Armageddon is next Saturday at 3 pm sharp

[bendejo]

At least most Mexicans have the sense to not have an open flame around this stuff. Indonesia, Malaysia, LOS, well, there would have been a disaster before the story was written.

[thaibeachlovers]

And so it begins. today stealing diesel, tomorrow throwing the 1% off the top floor of their luxury apartment buildings.

The 1% have a small window of opportunity to head off revolution of the dispossessed by not stealing everything and helping people out of poverty. Pretend it's not happening and they will be the ones burning.

Create people with nothing to lose and ................................