Security Concerns Rise in Mexico Both On and Offshore

COVID-19 is not the only concern that Mexico’s oil and gas companies may have.

Today, El Financiero reports that an armed group attempted to assault and enter PEMEX’s Salamanca refinery in Guanajuato. Following weeks of rising tensions over huachicol (fuel theft) in the state, the report explains that an abandoned vehicle with “12 explosive devices” was found after the attempted assault.

There has been unrest in the area after the arrest of the mother, sister and cousin of José Antonio Yépes, commonly known as “El Marro,” the leader of the region’s main hauchicol cartel, which is also involved in drug trafficking.

This latest incident is just another in a series of security threats that the industry is facing in Mexico. Though most would expect piracy in the Gulf of Mexico to have been relegated to history books, that too is rising. One of the most recent piracy events was in April, when offshore supply ship REMAS was boarded by pirates and the crew was taken hostage for a while before being released.

REMAS, an Italian-flagged vessel, has been attacked twice before in Mexico waters, reports Maritime Bulletin. The most recent attack came just five days before the latest incident, where eight assailants attempted to board the ship but were unable to do so. In November 2019 a more serious incident occurred when seven or eight armed assailants boarded the ship using two fast boats. Two crew members were shot though thankfully not critically injured.

Earlier this month, the US government issued a security alert over piracy concerns in which it stated that “armed criminal groups have been known to target and rob commercial vessels, oil platforms and offshore supply vessels in the Bay of Campeche area in the southern Gulf of Mexico.”

The New York Times last week reported that Mexican officials had said that despite years of piracy-free activity in the Mexican Gulf, “something changed in 2017.” “That year there were 19 successful or attempted robberies or thefts of oil platforms, supply vessels and fishing boats in the Bay of Campeche up from only four in 2016 and one in 2015, according to Mexico’s Navy Ministry,” the article reports.

Another 16 incidents were recorded in 2018, while 20 were recorded in 2019 and 19 have been recorded so far this year.

Lee Oughton, CEO of Mexico-based security company Fortress Risk Management told the NYT that the pirates are “plenty aware of SEMAR’s reach time and lack of resources.”