Oil rigs sabotaged at sea, says Lopez Obrador

'Very soon things will go back to normal,' president vows

Our Best Stories — Straight to Your Inbox!

Sign up for the Yucatán Roundup and get our biggest headlines once a week in your inbox. It's free and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Lopez Obrador said there had been “acts of sabotage at crude oil drilling platforms,” without providing further details. Photo: Courtesy

Widespread fuel theft has extended to oil drilling platforms, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday.

Lopez Obrador said there had been “acts of sabotage at crude oil drilling platforms,” without providing further details. He pledged to continue fighting longstanding fuel thefts in Mexico.

“We have identified the problem and we are also going to face it,” he said at a press conference.

To halt rampant fuel theft, Lopez Obrador has ordered the closure of important fuel pipelines, which has caused shortages at gas stations in at least 10 states. So far Yucatan has been spared the crisis.

Lopez Obrador said that the government was looking at purchasing an additional 500 tanker trucks to distribute gasoline and that officials were asking private companies to increase fuel imports. 

“Very soon things will go back to normal,” he said. “We are on the way to solving the problem in a definitive way.”

A poll released last weekend showed the crackdown was polarizing the population, though more people support the measure than oppose it.

Fuel inventories have been accumulating at major oil terminals and Mexico’s freight transport association expects a contingency plan aimed at speeding up gasoline distribution that began over the weekend will help ease bottlenecks.

Yucatán Magazine
Yucatán Magazine
Yucatán Magazine has the inside scoop on living here. Sign up to get our top headlines delivered to your inbox every week.
- Advertisement -spot_img
AVAILABLE NOWspot_img
ADVERTISEMENTspot_img
Verified by ExactMetrics