Two ships seized for hoarding, smuggling

Azis Tunny, The Jakarta Post, Ambon

The Indonesian Navy has apprehended two ships carrying tens of thousands of liters of fuel over the past week, one in the Riau Islands and the other in Maluku waters. The ships were seized for allegedly hoarding fuel and smuggling.

The arrest in Riau Islands waters happened on Tuesday evening when a Navy patrol vessel spotted the Maju Jaya carrying 50,000 liters of kerosene and 65,000 liters of diesel in Malacca Strait waters. The ship was on its way to Rokan Hilir regency, said chief of Dumai naval base, Col. Alex Kekung.

Naval personnel checked the ship's manifest and it was discovered that the fuel was purchased through delivery orders dated Sept. 19 and Sept. 23. The fuel should have been distributed to fuel stations for public consumption as soon as the fuel was taken from depots belonged to state oil and gas company PT Pertamina, but instead of distributing the fuel on Sept. 19 and Sept. 23, the fuel was hoarded until Oct. 2, the day after fuel price increase were announced by the government, Alex said, as quoted by Antara news agency.

The belated shipment of fuel has sparked suspicion that the owners had hoarded the it for their own gain, said Alex.

The government announced the fuel price hike on Saturday, with fuel prices jumping by 126 percent on average.

Separately, Navy personnel also nabbed a ship in Arafura waters on Thursday last week carrying 1,100 tons of diesel fuel. The arrest was made as the diesel was not accompanied by legal documents. The ship and its crew have been handed over to police for further investigation.

Spokesman for Maluku provincial police Adj. Sr. Comr. Artsianto Dharmawan said on Wednesday that police were investigating two crew members from North Sulawesi and Thailand respectively.

The fuel was believed to be on its way to Thailand, the police spokesman said.