Indonesian Navy seizes a tanker charged of stealing crude oil from Cambodia's reserves. AFP
The tens of millions of dollars worth of crude oil on board the MT Strovolos that were illegally taken out of Cambodian waters in mid-June – and seized by the Indonesian Navy a month later – belongs to Cambodia, and any charter contract disputes involving the oil tanker and the charterer are none of the Kingdom’s concern, the Ministry of Mines and Energy affirmed on September 3.
The ministry said in a statement: “MT Strovolos illegally left Cambodian waters and took steps to evade detection once it had done so, eventually entering Indonesian waters where it has been detained”.
“Consequently, various breaches of Cambodian and Indonesian laws have been committed [which] are now the subject of investigation and legal process.”
It noted that the UK-based World Tankers (UK) Ltd owned by the Singapore-based World Tankers Management Pte Ltd (WTM) manages the Bahamian-flagged vessel, which had been hired by KrisEnergy Group to act as a floating storage and offloading (FSO) tanker in the Apsara oil field.
The oil field sits on the offshore Cambodia Block A concession, which covers 4,709sq km of the Khmer Basin and is approximately 150km off the Kingdom’s shores, with water depths ranging from 50-80m.
KrisEnergy in 2014 bought a controlling stake in the Block A concession from US oil giant Chevron for $65 million, and in 2017 entered into a petroleum agreement for exploration and development from the Royal Government of Cambodia.
KrisEnergy Group holds a 95 per cent stake in Block A, with the General Department of State Property and Non-Tax Revenues of the Ministry of Economy and Finance holding the remaining five per cent.
Although KrisEnergy Ltd filed for liquidation on June 4, confirming that it was unable to pay its debts, the company emphasised that all operations of its subsidiaries in Cambodia – KrisEnergy (Cambodia) Ltd and KrisEnergy (Apsara) Co Ltd, would continue as normal.
The energy ministry went on to say: “The vessel was moored and connected to the production barge Ingenium II to receive crude oil from it, to perform its service as an FSO and permit offtake onto other [vessels], subject to local laws and regulations”.
It said it understands that there are ongoing claims between the owners and managers of the oil tanker and KrisEnergy regarding, inter alia, hire payments for the vessel. “If this is indeed the situation, then it is a matter between them and has nothing to do with the [government or] its crude oil,” it said.
“Whilst under charter to KrisEnergy, the vessel master was instructed by WTM in the evening of [June 18] to depart Cambodia at 8pm to Thai waters with the cargo of crude oil,” the ministry added.
It pointed out that the MT Strovolos left Cambodian waters without obtaining customs clearance or the required permission from the authorities.
The tanker’s automatic identification system (AIS) first went offline at 12:23 on June 19 and returned online nearly two days later at 10:48pm on June 20, after it had left Cambodian waters, the ministry said, adding that the AIS was repeatedly turned off and on during the vessel’s subsequent journey to Indonesian waters.
The ministry stressed that it “rejects the assertion by WTM in its media statement that the vessel had no realistic choice but to sail the vessel out of Cambodian waters to undertake crew change and bunkering”.
“At no time were the Ministry of Mines and Energy or the Cambodian authorities contacted by the vessel owners, the managers or any other party to arrange or permit any crew change or the bunkering of the vessel.
“In any event, neither of these matters would excuse the removal of the vessel and cargo of crude oil from Cambodian waters in breach of Cambodian laws.
“Since her unlawful departure, the vessel has made no attempt to return to Cambodian waters nor has she taken any steps to return the cargo of crude oil. This is despite the vessel owners, managers, master ad officers being fully aware that the crude oil belongs to the Kingdom of Cambodia,” it added.
The Indonesian Navy on August 25 said it was holding the oil tanker, its Bangladeshi captain and 18 other crew members.
The tanker was anchored illegally off the coast of Anambas Island regency, Riau Islands province with its AIS turned off when it was seized on July 27, three days after Phnom Penh issued an Interpol red notice about the suspected heist, naval authorities said.
The Indonesian Navy said it was interrogating the crew of 13 Indians, three Bangladeshis and a trio from Myanmar at its base on Indonesia’s Batam island, near Singapore. Naval authorities said the tanker was loaded with 297,686.518 barrels (nearly 47.33 million litres) of oil and en route to Batam, from Thailand.
Indonesian media report that the captain violated Article 317 in conjunction with Article 193 Paragraph 1 of Law No 17/2008 on shipping, for which the maximum imprisonment is one year and a maximum fine of 200 million rupiah ($14,000).
First Fleet commander Arsyad Abdullah said in a statement: “The [Indonesian] Navy will not hesitate to take action against any sort of legal violation that occurs in the waters in Indonesian national jurisdictions.”
In Cambodia, the energy ministry said, criminal complaints for various offences have been filed against the MT Strovolos’ owners, managers, the master, the chief officers and their alleged accomplices.
“Those complaints are being dealt with by the competent Cambodian courts,” it said, adding that the government “has sought the assistance of the Indonesian government to bring the perpetrators and their accomplices to justice and to obtain the restoration of the cargo of crude oil to the Kingdom of Cambodia, according to international laws and domestic laws of the two respective countries”.
It expressed gratitude to the Indonesian government for its cooperation on the case, stressing that the matter “will have to take their legal course and they are neither political nor commercial matters”.
As the rightful owner of the oil, the government “has taken, and will continue to take, all necessary steps to recover the crude oil and ensure the due enforcement of law”, the ministry added.
KrisEnergy extracted Cambodia’s first drops of oil, from Block A, on December 29.
With global crude oil benchmark prices currently hovering around $70 a barrel, the value of the petroleum on board the MT Strovolos is nearly $21 million, equivalent to more than four per cent of the $500 million the government had estimated that it would earn from royalties and taxes in the project’s first phase.
