Thread: Explosions Strike Mexico Gas Pipelines

Explosions Strike Mexico Gas Pipelines

By MIGUEL HERNANDEZ – 48 minutes ago

VERACRUZ, Mexico (AP) — Mexican gas and oil pipelines were attacked in six places before dawn Monday, causing explosions, fires and gas leaks that forced the evacuation of thousands of people.

The blasts reverberated for miles. No direct injuries were reported, although civil defense agencies said two women in their 70s who lived nearby died of heart attacks shortly afterward.

A small, shadowy leftist group linked to similar attacks in July left a note claiming responsibility, a police official in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to be quoted by name.

The note was found alongside at least one undetonated explosive device uncovered by soldiers in a swampy area about 550 yards away from a highway toll booth 25 miles north of the port of Veracruz, the official said.

The government did not immediately verify the information. Interior Secretary Francisco Ramirez said the federal Attorney General's Office was trying to determine who was responsible for the "premeditated acts."

"Pemex's fundamental installations are adequately protected by our armed forces, and we will do our utmost to find those responsible," Interior Secretary Ramirez said.

The six blasts happened about 2 a.m., according to a statement from the Mexican state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex. The company immediately shut down the affected lines as well as an extra line in the area as a precaution.

Flames from the fires could be seen up to six miles away, said Pedro Jimenez, who was packing his family into a truck to leave. "You could see the fields of crops lit up."

Dozens of families lined roadways to evacuate to local shelters.

Pemex said domestic gas and gasoline service would not be affected.

At four sections of the pipelines, fires broke out, while at others leaking gas prompted fears of explosions and forced civil protection authorities to evacuate several communities including Ciudad Cardel and Antigua, said state Civil Protection Deputy Director Ranulfo Marquez.

The explosions also prompted authorities to close two main highways.

"We still have a gas leak in the area of Ciudad Cardel," Marquez said. "There is still a risk."

Authorities also were checking to see if any gas had leaked into the Chiquito River, near the city of Nogales, said Nogales Mayor Marcelo Aguilar.

Starting Sunday evening, residents reported smelling gas from the pipelines.

The explosions could be felt up to 12 miles away, Marquez said.

The July attacks forced at least a dozen major companies, including Honda Motor Co., Kellogg Co. and The Hershey Co., to suspend or scale back operations.

Those attacks sent the Mexican government scrambling to increase security at "strategic installations" across Mexico. It was not clear what security measures were in place Monday.

Mexico is a major oil producer and exporter, with oil and related taxes accounting for over a third of the federal government's revenue. The United States imported 12.7 million cubic feet of natural gas from Mexico in 2006, about 0.3 percent of total imports that year.

Natural gas futures rose 5.5 cents to $5.56 per 1,000 cubic feet in late morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after initially rising more than 20 cents on news of the explosions. Mexico's stocks opened lower amid the reports of sabotage.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h3rx ... vWYXUL6WYQ

Mexico is a major oil producer and exporter, with oil and related taxes accounting for over a third of the federal government's revenue. The United States imported 12.7 million cubic feet of natural gas from Mexico in 2006, about 0.3 percent of total imports that year.

Pemex Blames Sabotage in 6 Separate Pipeline Blasts (Update4)

By Thomas Black and Valerie Rota

Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Petroleos Mexicanos, the country's state oil monopoly, said saboteurs blew up three oil and gas pipelines in the energy hub of Veracruz state, marking the third terrorist strike on its distribution network since July.

Six explosions that shut down lines carrying crude oil, natural gas and propane were ``premeditated acts,'' Pemex said in an e-mailed statement. About 12,500 people were evacuated after the blasts at 3 a.m. New York time, Veracruz Governor Fidel Herrera said on Mexico-City-based Radio Formula. Pemex reported no injuries or damage outside its facilities.

``In today's democratic Mexico, there is no place for these criminal acts,'' President Felipe Calderon said in a statement e-mailed by his office. ``Those who attack the security of the Mexican people under any pretext are attacking Mexico and democracy.''

Calderon, who took office in December, is facing Mexico's most serious security threat since a guerilla uprising in 1994 led to rebel seizure of the tourist town of San Cristobal Las Casas. Unchecked, guerrilla attacks on the country's energy infrastructure could undermine his plans to quicken economic growth with higher government spending on development projects.

The blasts today follow two separate pipeline bombings in July that disrupted natural-gas supply to thousands of residents and businesses in four states in central Mexico. The damage to industrial production may be even greater with today's blasts because it affects a larger natural gas pipeline and lines that connect to Mexico City and Guadalajara, the country's second largest city, said David Shields, an independent energy analyst in Mexico City.

`Main Arteries'

``These pipelines are the main arteries of supply to Mexico City and the surrounding areas,'' Shields said.

The explosions caused natural gas for October delivery to rise, said Michael Rose, trading director at Angus Jackson Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The price climbed 11.4 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $5.615 per million British thermal units at 12:40 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price earlier touched $5.703.

``The market is on edge, everybody is short and whenever anything happens we'll go up,'' Rose said.

Pemex is the only supplier of natural gas under Mexican law. The company, which generates tax revenue equal to almost 40 percent of federal spending, will require manpower and funds to repair the damage at a time when it is struggling to slow a decline in oil production that began in 2004. During the first seven month this year, Pemex produced an average of 3.16 million barrels per day, down from 3.38 million barrels per day in 2004.

Guerrillas

Mexico's economy is expected to grow 3 percent this year, down from an earlier estimate of 3.5 percent, and expand 3.5 percent next year, the Finance Ministry said upon introducing the 2008 budget to Congress on Sept. 8.

A guerrilla group that calls itself the Popular Revolutionary Army claimed responsibility for the blasts on July 5 and July 10. No one has taken responsibility for today's attacks.

The group, operating in Oaxaca and other southern states, demanded at the time the government release two of its members it said were being held illegally. The Interior Ministry denied having the two in its custody.

Known by the Spanish acronym EPR, the group first surfaced in Oaxaca and Guerrero states two years after the 1994 uprising in Chiapas by the Zapatista Army for National Liberation, an armed group demanding indigenous rights.

Fires

The EPR attacked soldiers and set off bombs, distinguishing itself as more violent than the Zapatistas, who avoided conflict with Mexican authorities after their initial uprising.

Pemex said four fires triggered by the explosions are under control. The fires may burn for ``several hours,'' the company said. Work crews are preparing to reestablish the supply of fuel once the fires are out, Pemex said in the statement.

Three of the blasts occurred in different areas of a 48- inch natural-gas pipeline that originates at Pemex's Cactus plant and goes to San Fernando in the northern state of Tamaulipas, Pemex said.

The other three explosions damaged a gas line and a liquid- propane pipeline, with one of those explosions including a 30- inch oil pipeline. The 30-inch natural gas line connects Minatitlan to Mexico City. The 24-inch liquid natural gas line supplies Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city.

The company didn't have information on the volume or number of customers affected, Carlos Ramirez, a Pemex spokesman, said in an e-mail.

Supply Cuts

The explosions on July 10 cut natural gas service to four states and caused more than 100 large companies to reduce or suspend production for a lack of gas.

The explosions today may have an even greater impact because they struck at large pipelines from southeastern Mexico where most of the country's oil and natural gas production is concentrated, Shields said.

Pemex said natural-gas supply will be the most affected by today's blast. Local supply of propane and gasoline would be met, the company said.

Following the Pemex blasts in July, President Calderon deployed 5,000 troops from an elite military unit to safeguard Pemex's facilities as well as dams and power plants. Pemex stepped up aerial surveillance of its 60,000-kilometer pipeline system.

The company's pipeline network is too extensive to patrol completely, Shields said.

``If terrorists have decided they're going to blow up Pemex pipelines, then it's going to be very hard to stop,'' he said. ``There was a time in Colombia that this would happen every week.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Valerie Rota in Mexico City at vrota1@bloomberg.net ; Thomas Black in Monterrey at tblack@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: September 10, 2007 14:42 EDT

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Congress should not send Mexico Aid Money.

We are in a war and need very cent we have.

What did they do for us after 9-11 besides send us more illegal aliens?

As a fair and equal gesture we should send their illegals back.

I think we should send them Halaburton.

Dixie

The shoe is on the other foot now !!


``In today's democratic Mexico, there is no place for these criminal acts,'' President Felipe Calderon said in a statement e-mailed by his office. ``Those who attack the security of the Mexican people under any pretext are attacking Mexico and democracy.''
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Sabotage suspected in Mexican pipeline blasts
Luis Monroy / AP
Army soldiers stand on a road as a fire rages near the town of Omealca in the gulf state of Veracruz.
By Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
1:11 PM PDT, September 10, 2007
MEXICO CITY -- -- In an apparent case of sabotage, six explosions blew apart natural gas pipelines operated by Mexico's Pemex state oil monopoly early today in Veracruz state, causing fires and forcing the evacuation of 15,000 people from surrounding towns.

No injuries directly related to the explosions were reported, but the blasts forced Pemex to immediately shut down at least four pipelines and federal authorities to close two major roads in the area.

Today's blasts occurred exactly two months after a leftist guerrilla group, the Popular Revolutionary Army, known by its Spanish initials EPR, took responsibility for carrying out bombings of Pemex pipelines in the south-central state of Queretaro.

The 10-year-old group had sworn to continue its bombing campaign until the federal government revealed the location of two EPR activists who went missing last year in the southern state of Oaxaca, which also has been the scene of violent protests and government-backed reprisals over the last year.

Though no group has yet claimed credit for today's explosions, political analysts here said they were probably the work of the ERP or a similar group and were a protest against President Felipe Calderon and his policies. Calderon, who is traveling in India, was quick to condemn the explosions as being caused by deliberate acts of violence.

"In the democratic Mexico of today there is no place for these criminal acts," Calderon said in a statement in New Delhi. "Those that attack against the security of Mexico under whatever pretext attack against democracy and against Mexico."

Calderon, who had dispatched soldiers and federal police to increase security along oil pipelines and at other "strategic installations" after the July attacks, vowed to find and hold accountable those responsible for the latest incident.

But today's explosions underscored the difficulty the federal government is having in protecting a pipeline system that stretches across multiple states and through many remote areas.

The apparent attacks also indicate the continuing domestic unrest facing Calderon, who has sought to depict himself as a law-and-order president by cracking down on narcotics trafficking and other criminal activity.

Though Calderon's public approval ratings are high, so are social tensions in certain parts of the country. Relative calm has returned to the streets of Oaxaca, but the city continues to simmer with anger left over from last year's massive teachers strike, which ended when Calderon's predecessor, President Vicente Fox, sent in federal police to remove barricades and drive protesters out of the city center, prompting widespread complaints of human rights abuses.

There also is continuing rancor over last year's presidential election, in which Calderon defeated former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose supporters claimed widespread voter fraud.

José Antonio Crespo, a political analyst, said the attacks on Pemex reflected the growing "radicalization" of Mexico's far left-wing groups, who believe they have been systematically shut out of institutional political power by the Fox and Calderon administrations, and have turned to increasingly violent forms of protest to make themselves heard.

"This is a direct consequence of what Calderon received as an inheritance of the election, in which he was chosen in a doubtful manner," from his leftist opponents' perspective, Crespo said.

"The government of Felipe Calderon has not done the necessary thing of sending a message to the left of using the institutional path, that yes it can participate in politics, with the possibility of being listened to. But Calderon has sent the opposite message."

reed.johnson@latimes.com

Times staff writer Cecilia Sanchez contributed to this report.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... home-world

Originally Posted by Equalizer

The shoe is on the other foot now !!


``In today's democratic Mexico, there is no place for these criminal acts,'' President Felipe Calderon said in a statement e-mailed by his office. ``Those who attack the security of the Mexican people under any pretext are attacking Mexico and democracy.''
[/b]

But that's different......them committing criminal acts and threatening the security of another country is just dandy

Petroleos Mexicanos, the country's state oil monopoly

The downfall of absolute power over anything... no back up.

Pemex is the only supplier of natural gas under Mexican law. The company, which generates tax revenue equal to almost 40 percent of federal spending, will require manpower and funds to repair the damage at a time when it is struggling to slow a decline in oil production that began in 2004.

We've got some illegal aliens we can send back. Let the Mexican Consulate know that the day labor centers can satisfy all of their manpower needs. Mexicans, your country needs you.

Dixie

Send your Mexican trucks to Los Angeles, we can fill them up with all the help you need.!

In today's democratic Mexico, there is no place for these criminal acts,'' President Felipe Calderon said in a statement e-mailed by his office.

Aw, Shut the hell up, ya friggin hypocrit. You're nothing but hot air, Calderon.