One requirement, one standard

Bajío Ventures · April 2026 · “One standard” series, 2 of 4

“Volumetric control should be a single requirement.” That is how one fuel station operator puts it, and it sums up the sector’s problem well: the same operation is measured, reported and reviewed under different criteria depending on who is asking.

The 20-degree case

Fuels change volume with temperature. That is why, in the industry, inventory is usually kept as volume corrected to a reference temperature (20 °C), while consumers are sold volume at ambient temperature.

In a city where summer goes above 40 °C, that difference shows up every month as shortfalls or surpluses. It is not fraud, it is physics. But without a written criterion on how to treat it, each inspector interprets it their own way. The result is uncertainty for the honest operator and room for the dishonest one.

The same happens with transport losses, partial deliveries from an LPG or diesel tanker truck, and the accepted uncertainty for each type of meter.

Giving criteria substance

Mexico’s tax authority, the SAT, requires taxpayers to prove the materiality of their transactions: that the invoiced litre existed, moved and was delivered. The industry asks something equivalent of the authority: criteria with substance, meaning written, measurable, with explicit tolerances and applied the same way by everyone.

A criterion with substance answers three questions:

1. What is measured, and where? Receipt, tank, transport or dispensing.
2. Against what reference? Temperature, density, correction method.
3. What difference is acceptable? A numerical tolerance, not an interpretation.

Electricity solved it; hydrocarbons have not

In the power sector, metering, settlement and data are centralised and run on common rules. In hydrocarbons, each authority has its own system and its own lens: tax, permits, safety, consumer protection, customs. Efficiency comes from coordinated regulation, and coordination starts with shared criteria.

What we propose

At Bajío Ventures we want to build, together with operators, inspectors and laboratories, a catalogue of harmonised criteria: a public list of frequent situations (temperature, losses, partial deliveries, tolerances), with the recommended practice and its technical justification. It is an input for the standards now under review.

Do you have a case where two inspectors or two authorities applied different criteria? Share it with us; it will become part of the catalogue.

In this series: 1. The cost of waiting · 2. One requirement, one standard · 3. A single file per station · 4. We need a common table (coming soon)

This article is for information only and does not constitute tax or legal advice. RMF provisions, standards under review and tax incentives change frequently; each case requires specific review.

Sources: Verifigas, RMF 2026: from Annex 30 to Annex 21 · SAT, Annex 30 of the RMF 2025 (volumetric control technical specifications) · SAT, volumetric controls: obligated taxpayers

Bajío Ventures — a Mexican energy infrastructure investment group based in Guanajuato: capital, a data platform on the regional industrial base, and a German industrial channel with its own advisory presence in Berlin.