Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has proposed a law that would weaken private gas companies and strengthen the state owned corporation, Pemex. Mexico had only started allowing private gas stations as recent as 2016. However upon their arrival, they began to rapidly take a large portion of the market away from the state backed company Pemex. Pemex stations are known for their low priced fuel and for “shorting customers on the volume of fuel delivered” (ABC). The new problem is that these private companies have been importing more oil and fuel without paying any tax on it. This law proposed by President Lopez Obrador, intends to close down any private company not paying taxes on imported gasoline and give their stations to Pemex. This is in order to combat the tax evasion on gasoline imports but also part of Lopez Obrador’s larger plan to end gasoline imports all together. Part of Lopez Obrador’s policy plans are to build oil refineries in Mexico and to not export any more crude oil, but rather to process it in house. He plans for Mexico to produce all the gasoline they consume so they do not have to import. In this plan, he also mentions the idea of bringing in foreign companies to build wind and solar farms to begin a transition to cleaner energy. Lopez Obrador said of the situation “We have to be self-sufficient, these are strategic activities so that Mexico can continue to be an independent and sovereign country”(ABC). The proposed law would allow for more state controlled markets and allow Pemex to strengthen its position amongst other private companies.
A similar law was proposed in 2019, when Lopez Obrador had asked congress to protect against fuel theft. The country’s gasoline reserves were traditionally transported using pipelines but since cartels and other organizations had begun to breach the pipelines and steal fuel, the gasoline is now transported through trucks and trains usually escorted by armed police. Due to this slower, less efficient method of transportation, a “fuel shortage” was observed. The fuel simply takes longer to get to stations and in that time, they run out and close down. Customers are not able to readily get gas and as a result, they must wait in hour long lines at the few places that do have gas. It is an unfortunate consequence of Lopez Obrador’s response to fuel theft. Lopez Obrador said “there is enough gasoline in the country, but we cannot use the pipelines because there are networks that were created to steal gasoline, alternate networks”(Sieff).
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