The number of illegal taps drilled into Mexican oil and natural-gas pipelines to steal fuel has doubled so far in 2013, the government said Tuesday. State-owned Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) said 1,421 illegal fuel taps have been discovered in the first six months of this year, nearly twice the 722 taps found in the same period of 2012. Thieves took the equivalent of 2.7 million barrels of fuel, equal to more than one day of the company's annual oil output. The energy company has estimated that such thefts cost it about $5 billion a year. Importantly, the illegal fuel taps frequently result in explosions or fires, such as a pipeline blast Sunday that injured seven people in central Mexico. One attempted theft caused an explosion that killed 29 people in late 2010.
