Pemex 'smuggling ring' lawsuit names U.S. firms

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Houston Business Journal

Monday, June 7, 2010, 3:32pm CDT
Pemex 'smuggling ring' lawsuit names U.S. firms
Houston Business Journal - by Ford Gunter Reporter

The exploration and production arm of Mexico’s national oil company, Pemex, filed a federal racketeering suit Monday in Houston against several defendants accused of buying and selling gas condensate stolen from facilities in Mexico and smuggling them into the United States.

Pemex Exploración y Producción is seeking to recover what it estimates to be more than $300 million in losses since 2006.

The unprecedented suit, filed in United States District Court in Houston, names several companies with major facilities and offices in Houston. With facilities in Pasadena, Clear Lake, Freeport and Beaumont, chemical giant BASF Corp. is probably the biggest of the bunch.

Tulsa, Okla.-based Murphy Energy Corp., which has an office in The Woodlands, Trammo Petroleum Inc., San Antonio-based Valley Fuels Ltd. and Brownsville-baed U.S. Petroleum Depot Inc. were also named.

“Pemex E&P has gone to great lengths to combat criminal rings that are stealing its condensate supply, yet these illegal enterprises remain viable because end users and distributors like BASF and Murphy purchase the stolen product,” said James Teater, a Houston-based Jones Day LLP attorney representing Pemex. “The only way to stop the theft is to shut down the market. That won’t happen as long as end users are buying stolen property.”




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