Singapore uncovers oil heist at Shell refinery

ELEVEN men were charged in a Singapore court yesterday in connection with a large-scale oil theft at Shell’s biggest refinery, while police said they were investigating six other men arrested in a weekend raid.

Police in the island-state said they had detained 17 men, ranging in age from 30 to 63, and seized millions of dollars in cash and a small tanker during their investigations into theft at the Pulau Bukom industrial site, which sits just south of Singapore’s main island.

Oil refining and shipping have contributed significantly to Singapore’s rising wealth during the past decades.

But the case underlines the challenges the industry faces in a region that has become a hotspot for illegal oil trading.

The investigation began after Shell contacted the authorities in August last year, police said.

After “extensive investigations and probes”, the Criminal Investigation Department, Police Intelligence Department and Police Coast Guard launched simultaneous raids across Singapore, which led to the arrests. Nine Singaporeans were immediately charged in the theft, of which eight were employees of the Singapore subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, court documents showed.

Two Vietnamese nationals were charged with receiving stolen goods on a small tanker named Prime South.

Shell confirmed yesterday that eight of the 11 men charged were current or former employees at Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd.

Shipping data from Thomson Reuters Eikon showed the Prime South had been shipping fuel between Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Singapore for the past 30 days.

Yesterday’s cases could be just the first insight into a grander scheme.

The charges seen so far allege three incidents of gas oil theft: on November 21, of more than 2 322 tons and on January 5 and 7 this year of a combined 2 062 tons.

The Vietnamese nationals were charged with receiving gas oil in the early evening hours of January 7, at wharf 5 at the heart of Shell’s operations on Bukom island.

Meanwhile, police say the other six men arrested remain under investigation.