(The Center Square) – Local, state and federal efforts are ongoing to tackle oil theft in Texas.
At the state level, the state legislature, Railroad Commission of Texas and Texas Department of Public Safety are working on several initiatives.
RCC Chairman Jim Wright has been leading a new task force, addressing oilfield theft, including the theft of crude, trucks, equipment, tools and materials like copper.
More than 40% of oil and natural gas operators in west Texas say their operations have been impacted by theft in the past year, a continued fallout of the border crisis.
However, oilfield theft is not new. Ten years ago, it caused an estimated annual loss of 10 million to 30 million barrels, or roughly $450 million to nearly $1.5 billion in revenue losses, The Center Square reported.
Oilfield theft is “an increasingly sophisticated crime that has been linked to organized crime and foreign criminal syndicates, costing Texans millions of dollars in lost state revenue,” the RCC said. Wright led a taskforce initiative earlier this month to focus on solutions. Their efforts are an outworking of legislation Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law last year, The Center Square reported.
“Chairman Jim Wright has demonstrated strong, proactive leadership in tackling the growing challenge of oilfield theft by chairing the STOPTheft Task Force,” TIPRO President Ed Longanecker told The Center Square. TIPRO represents roughly 3,000 operators in Texas. “Through targeted collaboration among regulators, industry operators, law enforcement, and stakeholders, the task force will help to close critical gaps in the system, from production tracking to point of sale and develop(ing) practical recommendations to protect Texas producers, royalty owners, jobs, and state revenues from sophisticated criminal activity that impacts more than 50 percent of operators.
“By working directly with stakeholders and ensuring the Railroad Commission allocates the appropriate resources internally, Chairman Wright is addressing this type of criminal activity head-on. His commitment ensures we are not only addressing threats but strengthening the long-term integrity of Texas’ energy sector,” he said.
Wright and the oil and gas industry have also been working on a solution for water shortages in west Texas and other regions facing a drought, The Center Square reported.
The Texas House Committee on Energy Resources held a hearing on oil theft this week, chaired by state Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo. At the hearing, DPS Captain Tim Murphy said a new DPS oilfield theft prevention unit began operating last July in response to new laws in effect. Five special agents are in the unit and have since trained 157 DPS officers in 36 departments on oil theft crime, he said.
He cited an example of oil theft perpetrators who attempted to tap into a pipeline in the Pecos region but were unsuccessful and were injured. They fled but were caught by law enforcement in Florida.
He also referred to a major case in south Texas where cartels have been smuggling stolen oil from Mexico into Texas, The Center Square reported. In one case, a Utah father and son were charged with conspiring to materially support a Mexican cartel and foreign terrorist organization, Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) and commit money laundering; at least 77,000 barrels of stolen crude was forfeited.
The case was part of an ongoing border-related crime problem stretching from oil field theft in west Texas to illicit crude oil smuggling connected to Mexican cartels, The Center Square reported.
This week, 14 people were indicted in Lubbock in connection to a large-scale oil theft conspiracy in the Permian Basin, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas. They were charged with conspiracy to transport stolen property in interstate commerce. Several were charged with interstate transportation of stolen property, and receipt, possession or sale of stolen property.
Three of the defendants are from Texas, 11 are from New Mexico. All but one are men. The scheme involved stealing crude from oil producers in southeastern New Mexico, some of which was stored on federal land leased by one of the alleged conspirators. It was then transported to Texas “for the purpose of enriching themselves” and sold below market price “for further sale at a profit,” according to the charges.
If convicted, they are facing decades in prison for multiple charges.
Multiple law enforcement agencies are involved in oil theft crime investigatons at the border, including Texas DPS, the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, DEA, IRS Criminal Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Marshals Service.
