© Daniel Aguilar / Reuters
In the downstream, however, aging refineries built before 1980 have been bleeding cash for years and made Mexico import increasing volumes of refined products to meet growing demand.
Operational and investment troubles aside, refineries in Mexico are bleeding as drug cartels have been racketeering refinery workers to help them tap storage facilities, trucks, and pipelines in a lucrative side business for the local narcos - fuel theft - Reuters reporter Gabriel Stargardter wrote in an investigative article this week.
Fuel theft deprives Mexico of more than $1 billion in state revenues every year. The security issues and rampant thefts scare off Mexico's old and inefficient refineries even after the opening of the energy sector to private investment. Crackdowns on the drug cartels have prompted the narco lords to seek a less risky but lucrative source of revenue - fuels - as everyone buys gasoline, and not everyone buys drugs, said officials who spoke to Reuters' Stargardter.
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