Police probe fuel theft, collusion

Evi Mariani, Jakarta

The Jakarta Police are scheduled to summon two inspectors of the Weights and Measures Directorate of the Ministry of Communications on Monday as witnesses in the theft of an estimated 100,000 liters of fuel per day from state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina's Plumpang fuel depot in North Jakarta.

According to the police, the fuel theft, made possible through collusion between tanker truck drivers and Plumpang workers, has been going on for more than a year and has caused billions of rupiah in state losses.

"Every day Plumpang depot supplies fuel to about 1,500 tanker trucks," said the city police environment and resources division chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Ahmad Haydar on Friday. "We suspect some of the tankers have received more fuel than the amount they paid for. We suspect that they then distribute the extra fuel to illegal depots."

"After checking the fuel pumps in Plumpang, we found that 39 of the 88 pumps there did not have accurate meters. Some of the 39 pumps were broken and some others were not calibrated," he added.

Haydar said the Weights and Measures Directorate should check the accuracy of the meters on the pumps every six months.

"The 39 pumps are under police supervision, but remain there and are in operation as usual. We don't want to disrupt the fuel supply in Jakarta," he said.

Plumpang is the central depot for supplying kerosene, gasoline and diesel to all fuel distributors in the city.

Police suspect that some of the pump meters have been deliberately tampered with to show an incorrect reading on the amount of fuel being pumped into the tankers.

"We estimate that around 1,000 tankers (from around 1,500 tankers) receive at least 100 liters of 'illegal' fuel each per day," said Haydar.

"We have suspected such a scheme since March 2003. Our routine operations have found 15 illegal fuel depots around the city, from which we managed to confiscate 378,000 liters of fuel," he added.

According to Haydar, most customers of these illegal depots are industrial buyers.

The police pursued their investigation into the source of the stolen fuel, leading them to Plumpang depot. They will visit Plumpang next week to supervise the calibration of the inaccurate meters.

Haydar said the police investigators have so far questioned five witnesses, all of whom are employees of Plumpang fuel depot.

Police said suspects could face several charges, including violating Law No. 2/1981 on weights and measures and Law No. 20/2001 on anticorruption.