Gas Shortage

Travelers beware there is a gas shortage right now. We returned from Laredo yesterday and was making great time till we got to San Luis Potosi. At the Racetrack Pemex outside town there were 500 cars lined up for gas and another 200 people with gas cans in line. Every gas station was like this or they were closed. We stopped at one to ask what was going on and were told That there had been no gas deliveries. After explaining that we had to find gas so we could get home the woman that worked there had here husband come offer to go with us to another Pemex where his friend worked that we could get 20 liters from him. We ended up going in the back way and getting 50 liters of gas in a big plastic jug and off we went. We were told the shortage was only in San Luis Potosi but at Lagos de Moreno all stations were closed. I decided to try San Juan del Lagos and the Pemex there would sell only 200 pesos of gas, but it got us closer to home. All stations were closed till we got to the last toll booth at Tepetitlan. They only had Premium and would only sell 20 liters. After all this we got home. But if you are traveling be aware to fill up where you can, the next Pemex might be closed!!!!

Crazy. One of the biggest worldwide surpluses on oil is underway and they have gas shortages in Mexico. Sounds like Pemex is setting up to commit a scalping far above the 3% per annum increase.

If you create the perception of a shortage by withholding product, it is much easier to increase a price and then maintain the increase. It somehow justifies the increase without just looking greedy.

It amazes me to read some the things posted on here...it makes me wonder if the posters get out that often. If they did venture out they would see that Pemex is the only game in town, it's not like NOB where you can shop around for gas.. Gas stations running out of gas is not that unusal in Mexico especially around holiday time.
Pemex couldn't care less what the customer thinks about the price of gas..
If you think that gas prices are high now just wait until de-regulation comes. The oil companies will be free to raise their prices without having to wait for the government to tell them what percentage they can raise the price.

You can be as amazed as you want however I've been driving around central Mexico for 5 years and have never once been denied gas or had any problem what so ever.

De-regulation can also bring price reductions as new companies jockey for market share.

BTW......a few years back when Pemex tried to raise the prices beyond expectations it resulted in riots, trucker strikes and bus burnings. Pemex had to reverse their increase so don't say it doesn't matter what people think.

The Ajijic Pemex was closed Christmas day not because of the holiday but because they were out of gasoline, at least that is what the attendant said as he filled me up. Apparently the Pemex truck or trucks showed up last night.

Who knows what the truth is? And who really cares?

I have had to, on more than ten occasions in my jaunts around the country, buy premium as magna was out. Of course I only went to the next station because I am so old school that less than a half tank on trips worries me. Was a time in the past when one never passed a Pemex without a top up.

No problem at Pemex libramiento SAT this AM at 10:00.  No line up, gasoline available.

The gas attendant at Tepetitlan said there was no shortage, that Pemex wanted people to think there was one so they could get the price raised up as high as possible before March. Another worker at Lagos de Moreno said they had gas but the electricity to the pumps had been shut off by company orders.

Telso, please explain your comment: It amazes me to read some the things posted on here...it makes me wonder if the posters get out that often.

Try paying attention to the news in your adopted country. The only conspiracy is by cartels and thieves breaching pipelines to steal large amounts of fuel!

And you know this because? you read the news?

sir wrote:Try paying attention to the news in your adopted country. The only conspiracy is by cartels and thieves breaching pipelines to steal large amounts of fuel!

Yes, please point us to the articles outlining this conspiracy.

I can't figure out what these people are talking about, If the gas stations are closed because they have no gas I would call it a gas shortage. I didn't say what caused it only what I was told. You can take it or leave it or stuff it where the sun don't shine I could care less. As far as paying attention in your adopted country? WTF is this clown even talking about?
I was only giving a heads up to people that were traveling to be aware nothing more.

I also read about the shortages in several states due to the cartels siphoning gas from the pipelines denying the delivery trucks enough fuel to fill the pumps at the stations.

CanuckBob wrote:

sir wrote:Try paying attention to the news in your adopted country. The only conspiracy is by cartels and thieves breaching pipelines to steal large amounts of fuel!

Yes, please point us to the articles outlining this conspiracy.

Here's the article in the Mexico News Daily...

http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/pemex-pipeline-thefts-trigger-gas-shortages/

Telso wrote:It amazes me to read some the things posted on here...it makes me wonder if the posters get out that often. If they did venture out they would see that Pemex is the only game in town, it's not like NOB where you can shop around for gas.. Gas stations running out of gas is not that unusal in Mexico especially around holiday time.
Pemex couldn't care less what the customer thinks about the price of gas..
If you think that gas prices are high now just wait until de-regulation comes. The oil companies will be free to raise their prices without having to wait for the government to tell them what percentage they can raise the price.

Actually de-regulation tends to benefit the consumer.  I know this for a fact because while living in two different provinces in Atlantic Canada, I saw the effects of regulating prices on gas.  The prices rose on average.  But back in Ontario, Canada, where my son was living at the time, he was loving the de-regulated prices.  I remember times where I was paying $1.54 for a litre of gas, and he was finding stations there selling gas for $1.02 at the same time, because there, the stations were allowed to set their own prices! And we were dealing with the same oil companies!  The only time that prices usually went up there was at the beginning of long weekends, then on the Monday it would drop again.  So, most people got smart, filled their tanks on the Thursday before the weekend, and had no problems.  Meanwhile, in the Maritimes, the price of gas had to be approved by a regulatory commission, and they usually only looked at it once or twice a month.  So, if the price of gas elsewhere dropped drastically, we didn't get to enjoy that!

suegarn wrote:

CanuckBob wrote:

sir wrote:Try paying attention to the news in your adopted country. The only conspiracy is by cartels and thieves breaching pipelines to steal large amounts of fuel!

Yes, please point us to the articles outlining this conspiracy.

Here's the article in the Mexico News Daily...

http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/pemex-pipeline-thefts-trigger-gas-shortages/

Gas theft is common here and may affect a few stations (as indicated in the article) but it is unlikely they could steal enough to shut down several states. This is just Pemex's excuse for either failing to deliver or creating a false shortage. Besides, wouldn't the crooks be selling the stolen gas back into the same market?

I still don't see a "conspiracy" as sir has indicated.......who is conspiring with who? And for what?

CanuckBob wrote:

suegarn wrote:

CanuckBob wrote:

sir wrote:Try paying attention to the news in your adopted country. The only conspiracy is by cartels and thieves breaching pipelines to steal large amounts of fuel!

Yes, please point us to the articles outlining this conspiracy.

Here's the article in the Mexico News Daily...

http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/pemex-pipeline-thefts-trigger-gas-shortages/

Gas theft is common here and may affect a few stations (as indicated in the article) but it is unlikely they could steal enough to shut down several states. This is just Pemex's excuse for either failing to deliver or creating a false shortage. Besides, wouldn't the crooks be selling the stolen gas back into the same market?

I still don't see a "conspiracy" as sir has indicated.......who is conspiring with who? And for what?

The method used when stealing gas causes the need to shut down a section of pipe line, until the pipe is repaired.
Nothing to do with the glut of oil, but to do with a lack of refining in Mexico.

http://geo-mexico.com/?p=7797
List of refineries

http://www.probdes.iiec.unam.mx/en/revistas/v47n187/body/v47n187a6_1.php

General overview of gas and oil

"In 2014, authorities identified and shut down 4,125 illicit connections for fuel theft, a figure that was 43.7% higher than the 2,871 detected in 2013. The state of Tamaulipas had the highest number of cases (641), accounting for 16% of the national total of PR's pipelines, followed by Guanajuato, with 524 (13%), Sinaloa with 519 (13%), and Jalisco with 359 (9%) (Pemex, 2015b)."

That's a lot of theft.

Yeah but they have to sell it back into the market they stole if from so in theory it shouldn't cause any shortage other than to Pemex itself. I assume they sell it to some nefarious independent Pemex stations?

Or they're stashing it...like the recent shootout in San Juan Cosala? The property was lined with containers containing fuel. Guess they're capable of stealing but don't know that gas loses its efficiency quite quickly when stored.

My friend just went to fill my car and the station on the libramiento filed my small car, but are now starting to limit the amount you can put in. He got his car and was running out to get some in his jeep so I did not get the full details.