Mexican govt focuses on fuel theft again after pipeline blast

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government has put eradicating fuel theft on the top of its agenda in the wake of an oil pipeline explosion that has killed at least 85 people and injured more than 80 others.

Officials believe fuel thieves had perforated the pipeline, which belongs to state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), and transports fuel from the city of Tuxpan on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico to the Tula refinery, near the site of the incident, in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo.

"It was intentional. Obviously someone perforated it because they wanted to illegally obtain the material," Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero told reporters at a news conference.