Thinking outside the crystal box

Fuel theft is unsurprisingly on the rise in Mexico, according to statistics that Argus obtained through an open-records request. But what is surprising was the relative ease of getting the data.

Mexico pulled back the veil in ways unheard of for most of Latin America as part of its 2014 energy reforms, including transmitting national hydrocarbons commission (CNH) proceedings online and making reams of data — such as retail fuel prices — available on the gob.mx blog. It set up a procedure to request information not freely available. Consumers can use a government phone app to report gouging at fuel stations. The changes come as Mexico seeks billions in energy investment.

"Everything is in a crystal box. We are in the business of confidence," the head of the country's energy regulatory commission (CRE) Guillermo Garcia Alcocer recently told Argus. "The investor has to have a high level of confidence to put their money into a country."

As part of ethics standards, commissioners can only meet with regulated entities in CRE offices and discussions are recorded. An ethics committee vets events, telling one commissioner to decline a quinceañera on a potential conflict, Garcia said.

But reams of data do not guarantee understanding. Violent protests in January after fuel prices rose as part of the liberalization process are an example, one researcher noted.

"Nobody understood a hoot about why gasoline prices were increasing," said professor Miriam Grunstein, a non-resident scholar at Rice University's Baker Institute Mexico Center in Houston, who also advises the CNH on transparency. "It is not just about publishing data, it is about socializing data so people understand it and it has meaning for them."

The level of transparency also varies by agency and event. Pemex has been coy about its open seasons for fuel logistics, delaying them with little notice and giving few financial details.

"That is a lack of transparency," Grunstein said of the open season process. "It is very hard to reach the highest standards of transparency if all agencies do not aspire to that."