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BISBEE — Gasoline prices may have surged to near $3 per gallon in much of Arizona, but it’s not stopping Mexican citizens like Jorge Luis Velazquez, a grocery store owner from Naco, Sonora, from driving across the border once or twice a week to fill up at American pumps.
Until recently, Velazquez’s preference for buying gas in the United States rather than at the stations of Mexico’s state-run oil monopoly Pemex could be easily explained by economics — gas was cheaper on this side of the border.
But late last week, the price of gas at the Naco Pemex station stood at 7.41 pesos per liter, or $2.57 per gallon, while the lowest price found in Bisbee was $2.88.
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As Velazquez explains, the appeal of American gas goes far beyond price.
“I’ve got a fairly new car, and when I run it on gas from over there (in the United States), it runs great,” he said. “When I run it on gas from here (in Mexico), it breaks down.”
In addition to differences in quality, he says there is also an issue of confidence.
“In the U.S., when you pay for a gallon, they pump a gallon. At Pemex, you pay for a gallon and who knows how much they put in,” he said.
Velazquez’s assessment of the Mexican oil giant is neither unique nor unfounded. Operations targeting pump fraud at the nation’s nearly 7,500 Pemex stations routinely make headlines in Mexico.
In March, for example, 315 stations in the State of Mexico were closed after the federal consumer protection agency found they were defrauding customers. According to the nation’s Economy Secretariat, as many as half of Mexico’s gas pumps are outdated and vulnerable to tampering.
To combat the problem and improve the company’s image, Pemex announced earlier this year that it was asking the independent owners of its stations to sign a new franchise agreement designed to reduce fraud. As part of the deal, stations that install tamper-proof pumps will receive a quality certificate to display to customers.
In addition, Pemex is planning to equip its tanker trucks with new technology meant to reduce gas theft — a problem that costs the firm almost $2 billion a year. Some company officials are alleged to be complicit in the scams.
Theft rings take the stolen gas, dilute it with additives such as used motor oil and sell it at a reduced price to Pemex station owners. Consumers who use the substandard product suffer poor performance and even engine damage. Pemex settles thousands of claims each year with motorists whose cars are ruined by faulty gasoline.
Meanwhile, as Mexico’s oil monopoly struggles to regain consumer confidence, Arizona border-area gas stations such as the Shell Super Stop in Bisbee, a straight five-mile drive from Naco, Sonora, continue to benefit from cross-border business.
Store clerk April Fairchild estimates that as many as half of the station’s gas customers are from Mexico. She sees little change in the trend since prices started going up.
Eduardo Santillanez, a tire company sales representative, stopped at the Shell Super Stop one afternoon last week to fill the tank of his SUV before continuing on to Tucson. He said he had waited to gas up until he had crossed into the United States — 45 miles from his home in Cananea, Sonora.
“Even though the price is higher now, the quality is still a lot better here,” he said. “The gas lasts longer and gives your car more power. At Pemex, you never know what you’re getting — people say they mix water in the gasoline.”
Up the road at Dunlap Chevron on the Bisbee traffic circle, owner Kevin Dunlap estimates he sees between five and 10 customers a day from Sonora. And he said he can tell that a car is from Mexico without even looking at its license plates.
“When they turn off the ignition and the engine keeps running, that’s a sign of poor-quality, low-octane gas,” he said.
Roberto Su‡rez, an engineer from Sierra Vista, said he could remember growing up in Naco, Ariz., in the 1970s when gas was cheaper in Mexico than in the U.S. His parents would drive over to Sonora to fill up the family car at Pemex, and the results were obvious.
“You’d turn it off and it would keep on sputtering,” he said.
JONATHAN CLARK can be reached at 515-4693 or by e-mail at jonathan.clark@bisbeereview.net.
Joe Hicks wrote on Oct 8, 2007 2:22 PM: