Pemex workers suspended for fuel theft

CHIHUAHUA, August 28, 2017 – The Civil Service Secretariat has suspended 25 Pemex employees in the state of Chihuahua as part of an investigation into fuel theft incidents, the Mexican NOC announced in a statement Sunday.

The employees, all stationed at the company’s Chihuahua Storage and Dispatch Terminal, are also accused of causing damage to Pemex equipment and infrastructure. The value of the damage is still being determined.

Pemex Logística, the company’s pipeline and terminal operations arm, has said that the workers had remotely modified the automatic system used to fill Pemex tankers with fuel. In this way, the load measurement feature was adjusted to overfill the trucks, which were then driven to unauthorised locations so that the extra fuel could be retrieved.

News of the suspension follows several illegal hot tapping incidents at Pemex pipelines last week. On Friday, a petrol line in Acambay, Mexico state, exploded after authorities had discovered a leak caused by damage from a fuel theft operation. No injuries were reported.

On August 19, one person died and five were injured when a pipeline they were siphoning from burst into flames. The incident took place in Ixtaczoquitlán in Veracruz state.

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