Pemex brings gas line back in service

Sept. 18, 2007
Mexico's Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) resumed natural gas transportation Sept. 17 through its 48-in. Cactus-San Fernando pipeline.

Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 18 -- Mexico's Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) resumed natural gas transportation Sept. 17 through its 48-in. Cactus-San Fernando pipeline.

The firm said it expected to have service completely restored by Sept. 18 on the network that was put off line last week by guerrilla bombs at Delicias, Rio Actopan, and Rio La Antigua.

Pemex said the attacks did not result in any casualties, but it cut power to more than 2,000 businesses in 10 states, according to figures from the Canacintra industrial association. The shutdown cost those firms about $100 million/day, Canacintra reported.

The Ejercito Popular Revolucionario (EPR), a secretive Marxist group that killed dozens of Mexican police and soldiers in the late 1990s, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

EPR said it bombed the pipeline to force the release of EPR militants it alleges were arrested by the government May 25. Mexican officials say the rebels are not in custody.

EPR says Edmundo Reyes Amaya, Raymundo Rivera Bravo, and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sanchez have not been seen since their arrest. EPR wants them back and apparently has been bombing the country's oil and gas pipelines for that purpose.

In the latest attacks, one bomb was discovered intact, with a note attached. "Alive you took them, alive we want them back," in an apparent reference to the missing EPR militants.

The rebel group has warned of more attacks if its missing members are not returned unharmed.

Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].