For years, Mexico’s energy crisis was defined by the theft of refined gasoline—a practice known locally as *huachicol*. But a more sophisticated and lucrative shadow economy has taken hold: the theft of crude oil itself. In 2025, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) lost an average of 53,200 barrels of raw petroleum every day, a 12.7 percent increase over the previous year. According to energy analyst Francisco Banés de Castro, the financial toll of this drainage has reached approximately $1.2 billion annually.
This is not merely a matter of siphoning pipelines. Experts describe a "round-trip" smuggling operation where stolen crude is transported across the border to be processed in U.S. refineries. The resulting diesel and gasoline are then smuggled back into Mexico, undercutting the legitimate market. It is a closed-loop system of contraband that turns Mexico’s primary raw material into a weapon against its own energy infrastructure.
The fiscal burden on Pemex is compounded by a quirk of Mexican regulation. Despite the theft, the state-owned company remains responsible for paying production royalties to the government on every barrel extracted, whether it reaches a refinery or vanishes into the black market. This leaves Pemex paying for the privilege of being robbed, further straining the finances of one of the world’s most indebted oil companies.
With reporting from Expansión MX.
Source · Expansión MX
