Police confiscate 470 tons of hoarded fuel aboard ship

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post , Jakarta

The city police have confiscated at least 470 tons of hoarded diesel fuel, worth Rp 5 billion, on a barge off the northern coast of Jakarta.

The City police financial detectives division, led by Adj. Com. Suhardiyanto, said on Thursday that it had raided the ship Kencana Jaya One on Tuesday at 1 p.m.

The ship's crew was also caught red-handed selling 2.5 tons of diesel fuel to a locally owned domestic fishing ship that operated abroad, Jimmy Wijaya 36. The ship was bound for Sri Lanka.

The ship sold the fuel to the fishing ship at a price of Rp 1.015 per liter, higher than the normal price of Rp 900.

Based on regulations of the state oil company Pertamina, which controls the fuel trade, the ship was not allowed to sell fuel to any vessel other than domestic fishing ships operating within Indonesian waters.

A reliable source said that several people from Pertamina were believed to be behind the hoarding incident.

The ship had been under the police surveillance since Dec. 25, 2001, suspected of hoarding a large amount of fuel since November 2001.

According to a detective from the city police, the owner of the ship, H. Dani from PT. Millennium, transferred the use of the ship to H. Sutarto from PT. Nasitor.

He said that by doing so Dani had violated an agreement between his company and Pertamina, which ruled that such a transfer to other parties needed the state firm's prior permission.

However, the ship had managed to get the transfer license without any permission from Pertamina and had secured a delivery of diesel fuel from Koperasi Bandar Sunda Kelapa, a trading agent of Pertamina.

The police also found that Pertamina had not attempted to locate or report the ship, although it had not sold its fuel load for the last two months.

According to the detective, if a ship failed to sell all its fuel within 24 hours, it was obliged to report it to Pertamina. Pertamina would then ask the ship to make a new delivery or return the fuel.

City police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam said that at least five people had been detained in their inquiry. They would be charged with violating government regulation No. 22/2001 on oil and gas.

Article No. 53c of the regulations relating to hoarding carries a maximum penalty of three years' imprisonment and a fine of Rp 3 billion. Article No. 50a on trading oil and gas illegally carries a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment and a fine of Rp 5 billion.

Anton dismissed an accusation that certain military officers were involved in the illegal trading.