Mexico’s plans to boost oil refining hit a slick

On the corner of 101st street at the Miguel Hidalgo oil refinery north-east of Mexico City, five men stand in the warm sun contemplating their afternoon’s work: to cut an iron rod.

Dwarfed by the towers and storage tanks surrounding them, two of the helmeted workers knuckle down while the other three look on. As if overcome following a heavy lunch, one of them stretches his arms high into the air before lowering them again to rub his protruding stomach. From the bevy of secretaries crammed into the main office to the groups of workers napping outside, vignettes of inefficiency abound at the complex near the central Mexican town of Tula, owned and operated by Pemex, the state oil monopoly.

MSN