How Thieves Are Making Off With Nearly A Billion Dollars In Oil Every Year

Martin County, Texas, looks like something out of a Jim Harrison novel. Rolling plains, an unending sky, and bobbing up and down in the distance, the necks of oil pump jacks. Around 5,000 people live there, according to the 2020 census, but the Martin County Sheriff's Office needs more eyes than that. Every year, thieves leave the oil fields in the county with around 500 barrels of crude oil.

Sheriff Randy Cozart tells Bloomberg Businessweek that at least once a week, someone calls him to say their oil field has been robbed. Trailers, copper wire, and most of all, crude go missing regularly. Based on last year's average price of $65 per barrel, it's an annual loss of some $1.7 million - more, if you factor in today's oil prices."Where there's money, there's crime," says Cozart. "And there's lots of money in oil right now."

"The old joke in the oil field used to be that if it wasn't bolted down, it would get stolen," says Michael Lozano. He runs government affairs and communications for the Permian Basin Petroleum Association. "Now they're unscrewing the bolts, and they're stealing those too," he tells Bloomberg. Martin County is part of the Permian Basin, a site rich in oil and natural gas.

Law enforcement says that thieves operating in the basin might "connect vacuum trucks to storage tanks in broad daylight and siphon it out," or pose as waste haulers. Oil companies frequently hire waste removal companies to do just that, pulling toxic water from storage tanks, though they're surely surprised when the water remains, and the crude is gone. Sometimes, the thieves simply hide in plain sight, arriving when oil fields are busiest, siphoning off the oil, and disappearing. The ease of theft is only exacerbated by the region's remote populations.

Thieves can sell the oil through saltwater disposal facilities. These legally sell crude oil recovered from wastewater, and the stolen barrels are then laundered into local pipelines. Sometimes, oil crosses the border and is resold.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published May 4, 2026 at 5:07 PM.