Thieves drilled about 28 taps a day into pipelines last year

摘要

Thieves drilled a record number of illegal taps into Mexico's state-owned pipelines last year: 10,363, or about 28 per day on average. State-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, yesterday reported a 50.8 percent jump in illegal taps from 2016. Experts say the figure probably undersells the problem. Many illegal taps are probably still functioning undetected, funneling fuel that is sold on the black market or even by normal gas stations. The company said almost 4 million gallons of stolen fuel was recovered and more than 70 gas stations were closed for selling stolen fuel.