Central Mexico LPG leak shuts pipeline: Update2

Updates status.

State-owned Pemex has shut the 14- to 24-inch Cactus-Zapotlanejo LPG pipeline and stopped injections at three storage terminals north of Mexico City because of a leak caused by attempted fuel theft.

The leak started in the early morning hours today. Efforts to stop the leak and disperse the gas cloud continued most of the day. Pemex confirmed at about 6:15pm ET that the leak had been controlled.

Pemex also stopped any LPG injections at the Jaltenco, Invalle and Tepeji terminals. Connecting and nearby LPG pipelines have been closed as well.

The site is near one of Mexico's principal highways, the Circuito Mexiquense. More than 750 personnel from Mexico's civil protection agency, fireman, the national guard, the defense ministry and Mexico state are also responding.

About 3,000 nearby residents have been evacuated, the civil protection agency said.

Mexico's LPG industry has said it loses about Ps1.1bn ($57mn) every month to fuel and equipment theft, although LPG is significantly technically harder to steal and transport than gasoline and diesel.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said illegal pipeline tampering and fuel theft has been slashed after the government closed the most theft-prone fuel pipelines starting in January and moved more transportation to tank trucks, although this initially lead to widespread shortages.

The government said its anti-fuel theft campaign cut volumes of stolen gasoline and diesel to 4,000 b/d in April from an average of 80,000 b/d in 2018.