Mexico's Pemex has filed a suit in a US district court seeking damages from large integrated oil companies Shell, ConocoPhillips and Marathon for what Pemex estimates to be the use of more than $246 million worth of natural gas condensate stolen from Mexican oil fields, according to legal documents available Wednesday.
Filed late Tuesday in Houston, the complaint acknowledges that Shell and the other large end users of the condensate likely did not know the product had been stolen by Mexican drug cartels and resold in the US to suppliers.
But Pemex also charges that the companies remain liable for damages to the Mexican national oil company and asks the court to determine what those damages should be.
No one was immediately available from the companies to comment on the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division suit, which was filed immediately after US District Judge Sim Lake rejected a Pemex request to add those companies to its related three-year-old suit against a number of first tier suppliers.
Allegations about the stolen condensate first emerged two years ago, triggering investigations inside Mexico and in the US by customs authorities.
"Defendants took possession of Mexico's sovereign property without right or title," the latest lawsuit charges. "All defendants are therefore liable for their individual usurpation of Mexico's patrimony."
Reviewing the history of the thefts, the lawsuit identifies northeastern Mexico's Burgos field, where Pemex operates 2,827 natural gas wells, as the site of production.
The suit says that no Pemex entity sold condensate between 2006 and late 2011 and charges that any condensate entering the US after 2006 to at least the middle of 2011 had been stolen.
Identifying drug cartels as the culprits hijacking trucks or pipelines, the suit reports that Mexican authorities have brought criminal charges against more than 140 individuals involved in the thefts, including two Mexican customs agents "who were jailed for allowing tanker trucks of stolen condensate to pass through Mexican customs and into the US with fraudulent export documents."
The suit alleges that Pemex has lost 40% of its Burgos condensate production, with more than $300 million worth of the chemical feedstock stolen since 2006.
It also concedes the difficulties in tracking the stolen condensate once it arrives in the US and mixes with the supply train.
Among the larger end users who unwittingly obtained stolen condensate, Pemex identifies Shell Trading US as "by far the largest marketer of stolen condensate," with a liability as high as $150 million in stolen condensate.
The suit identifies other large end users as Shell Chemical with a liability of $13 million; ConocoPhillips with $35 million; Marathon with $18 million; and, Sunoco with $30 million.
It also names FR Midstream as another Texas oil company involved without identifying a value.
For each of the large end users, the suit says Pemex is not alleging that they acted "with intent or knowledge or that it was a part of any conspiracy."
The suit says: "In a reversal of the classic Western movie, Mexican criminals have sought refuge with their ill-gotten gains by crossing the Rio Grande to the north, where the Mexican government has no authority to follow."
Asking the court for help, the suit continues: "Once the condensate passes the US-Mexico border, its final destination becomes inherently undiscoverable to Pemex."
