On July 12, two foreign boats were confiscated off Vietnam coast over suspicions of smuggling diesel oil.
What happened?
The Vietnam coast guard officials confiscated two boats in waters off the Vietnamese coast over suspicions of smuggling diesel oil.
The two boats, one registered in Singapore and another unnamed one with a Chinese captain, were fined a total of VND137 million ($6,000) for the smuggling attempt and fuel oil was confiscated from them.
No proper documents
Vietnam’s coast guard said Tuesday, “Two months ago, coast guard forces in the central province of Quang Nam spotted the Singaporean ship carrying around five million liters of diesel oil without proper papers. They caught the ship transferring the fuel to an unnamed vessel with a Chinese captain around 45 nautical miles northeast of Vietnam’s central coast.
The Singapore registered ship, Pacific Ocean, was also carrying 17 crew members without identity papers when it was captured. Its captain could not produce legal documentation for the cargo”.
However, the captain and crew of the Pacific Ocean told coast guards that they pumped the fuel after receiving confirmation from Far East Shipping & Trading Pte Ltd.
Fuel seized
During the time of inspection, the fuel from the boats were seized by the officials and auctioned. The proceeding from the auction were credited to the state budget.
According to the coast guard, this was the second time a Singaporean ship had been caught for fuel smuggling in Vietnamese waters.
From 2013 to 2015, Vietnamese forces seized about 21.3 million tons of illegal fuel, contributing more than VND270 billion ($12.1 million) to the state budget.
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Source: VnExpress International
