“Truckloads of oil are being stolen from small, independent oil producers. Oilfield instruments, trucks, equipment, and even work boots and clothes have been stolen,” says Oil & Gas Workers Association president Matt Coday.
Illegal aliens have begun working with criminal networks to steal truckloads of oil from America’s largest oilfields in the Permian Basin in West Texas, according to local authorities.
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), whose district spans 800 miles of the Texas border, organized local and federal law enforcement to strategize how to counter the mass theft by the criminals, characterizing the issue as an energy security problem more than a border security problem.
“The bottom line is the border crisis is expanding, and it is morphing into other things, and part of that is you have folks that are Cuban nationals that are kind of settling out in West Texas and in some cases are part of this increase in oil theft,” Gonzales told the Washington Examiner on Friday in a phone interview, adding that Cuban involvement in the enterprise was “growing.”
📍MONAHANS
This morning, I hosted a roundtable about the rise in oilfield theft in West Texas. I was joined by the FBI and local law enforcement from all over the region.
Together, we are working to improve task force operations that will stop criminals in their tracks. #TX23 pic.twitter.com/vcDWhyeZfz
— Rep. Tony Gonzales (@RepTonyGonzales) May 10, 2024
“What I’m trying to do is connect all those local law enforcement agencies with this FBI Task Force that sees the overall picture.”
“If you live there locally, you know it is a real problem, but it’s almost not making it up to the national stage because it’s in a silo, if you will. And I’m trying to break down the silos — local, state, and federal all on the same page,” Gonzales said.
The criminal networks aren’t just stealing oil from small, independent oil producers, but also equipment, vehicles, pipe materials and oilfield instruments.
From the Washington Examiner:
Oil theft in the region is no small problem, and the potential for it to destroy oil and gas jobs in the United States is a “very serious, existential threat to our national security,” according to Matt Coday, president and founder of the Oil & Gas Workers Association.
“Truckloads of oil are being stolen from small, independent oil producers. Oilfield instruments, trucks, equipment, and even work boots and clothes have been stolen,” Coday wrote in a message. “These crimes hurt every American and smaller, independent producers especially.”
Winkler County Sheriff Darin Mitchell told reporters at a press conference at the epicenter for the oil theft on Friday that this type of crime had “increased dramatically” in recent months.
Oil is a major industry in West Texas, making theft something that has begun to affect residents, according to Winkler and Crane County District Attorney Amanda Navarette.
“It not only affects big business, but it affects our systems of our counties,” Navarette said during the press conference. “Most of us work in the oil industry or have some kind of ties, and this ultimately affects everybody in our communities.”
Gonzales also pointed out the criminal cartels aren’t just stealing oil and equipment, they’re stealing everything they can as part of their vast criminal enterprise.
“They’re also in human smuggling, and they’re also in drugs, and they’re also in cars,” Gonzales said. “These criminal organizations, they’re not like, ‘Oh, hey, we’re only in the oil stealing business.’ They’re in everything. They will steal anything that’s not bolted down and one of those things is oil because it’s lucrative.”
According to oil producer ConocoPhillips, over 30,000 barrels of oil have been stolen from the Permian Basin since October 2022.
Joe Biden’s open border policy is largely to blame for the cartels’ ability to facilitate the mass theft of U.S. oil, Coday claimed.
“We believe Joe Biden’s open borders policies are helping drug cartels take over America’s most prolific oil-producing region now,” he said.
Given Biden’s hostile stance toward oil and fossil fuels and his previous policy of draining America’s strategic oil reserves, it’s unlikely this mass oil theft by illegal aliens and criminal networks will receive serious scrutiny by Biden’s White House
