Mexican city devastated by pipeline blast; 27 die

(AP) ^ | Sunday December 19, 2010, 7:24 pm | E. Eduardo Castillo

[BenLurkin]

SAN MARTIN TEXMELUCAN, Mexico -- A massive oil pipeline explosion lay waste to parts of a central Mexican city Sunday, incinerating people, cars, houses and trees as gushing crude turned streets into flaming rivers. At least 27 people were killed, 12 of them children, in a disaster authorities blamed on oil thieves.

[sionnsar]

So it’s not just Nigeria anymore...

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[dalebert]

prayers for them

[edcoil]

Weekend in Chicago.

[Palladin]

God help them all. This is a terrible disaster.

[353FMG]

Pipelines can so easily be sabotaged.

[bert]

I suspect a Pakistani made valve failure

[umgud]

Heard it was caused by oil thiefs.

[redheadtoo]

An exploding pipeline wipes out people and houses? Can anyone say San Bruno?

[roadcat]

"In 2009, the U.S. Justice Department said U.S. refineries bought millions of dollars worth of oil stolen from Mexican government pipelines and smuggled across the border in illegal operations led by Mexican drug cartels expanding their reach."

Wow, it's not just smuggling drugs and people anymore! Those poor burn victims, turns my stomach to hear of anyone getting burned.

[2harddrive]

I heard it was because minorities were trying to STEAL the product, but they did not do things correctly!

[SwinneySwitch]

Pemex ping!

If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.

[Eva]

Well, I think that this is a little different than Nigeria. The oil is being stolen by the Zetas and sold to refineries in South Texas, reportedly. I have a whole lot of questions about the idea of them loading crude and sending it to refineries. It sounds more like refined product that is being smuggled across the border and purchased by a few men who act as middlemen for the companies. The only company that I recognized was BASF. The article said that BASF had no idea that the oil or product had been bought on the Black market.

[SwinneySwitch]

“There have been 100 such illegal taps this year all along the pipeline that exploded Sunday.

Pemex has struggled with chronic theft, losing as much as 10 percent of all of its product. Criminals tap remote pipelines, sometimes building pipelines of their own, to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil each year,...”

[HiJinx]

As if they aren’t getting enough revenue from the drug trade?

[sionnsar]

As if they aren’t getting enough revenue from the drug trade?

It would seem not.