Saudi oil smuggled to Europe for 11 years

Smuggled oil shipments depart from King Fahd Port in Yanbu towards France, other European countries.

By Habib Trabelsi - PARIS

Reports in Saudi Arabia unveiled this week oil-smuggling operations from the King Fahd Industrial Port in Yanbu to France and other European countries that have been happening for more than eleven years.

In the absence of a statement of clarification from the Kingdom’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, accounts vary between smuggling using “used oil barrels” and direct smuggling through huge pipelines connected to the smuggling company’s storage reservoirs. The company is reportedly one of Saudi Armco’s contracting partners.

“Barrels” or “Pipelines”?

"Okaz" was the first newspaper that reported the news last week, quoting "informed sources" who said that the Saudi Administrative Investigation Department "uncovered smuggling operations after tracking the company’s commercial traffic, where oil shipments would depart from King Fahd Industrial Port in Yanbu in preparation for transfer to France and other European countries."

According to these sources, the smugglers used a trick that is to "ship oil in barrels" by claiming that they contain used vehicle fuel, which is usually exported to foreign companies to refine it in various industrial fields.

The newspaper added that a committee of the Administrative Investigation Department and the Ministry of Petroleum proved the involvement of the company’s owner and ten other employees working in different companies in the petrochemical sector in the smuggling operations.

"Okaz" quoted last Saturday the port’s Director General, Hamoud Al-Saadi, who revealed the company's fraud and smuggling activities, as saying that "it got to a point where oil is transferred through huge pipelines from the company’s reservoirs, which are located outside the port, directly to the ship without the need for barrels or any other means of transport.”

More than 11 years of smuggling

Okaz’s "informed sources" said on Tuesday that "the company” involved in the scandal “has been conducting smuggling operations for more than 11 years, by circumventing fluid quality system of liquids transferred directly from its reservoirs to the oil tankers bound to travel overseas."

The spokesman of the Saudi Customs and Director General of its Public Relations Department, Abdullah Bin Saleh Al-Kharboush, acknowledged the existence of many attempts to smuggle subsidized oil and oil derivatives "on the grounds that it is allowed to export these materials via sea and land border posts."

Kharboush noted that the Customs Department considers these activities as crimes of smuggling and customs violations, which will be treated in accordance with the Common Customs law system.

For his part, the Secretary General of the Franco-Arab Chamber of Commerce, Saleh Bakr Al-Tayar, has asked to publicly denounce the names of company and the employees involved in the smuggling operations and punish them so that this step can "be a deterrent to any person who thinks of wasting state property and interests of international trade."

“Who’s responsible for the stolen oil?”

In a satirical article, published on Tuesday in the Pan-Arab newspaper "Al-Hayat", the author Abdulaziz Al-Soueid wrote that the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources "suspended" the company's activities, but “it has not issued any statement of clarification”, suggesting that setting up “huge pipelines on the ground without the approval of the Port’s management could mean huge corruption, or perhaps an even larger neglect.”

"The news related to the scandal is incomplete and funny, as we do not know the name of the company nor by whom it is owned or managed. I expect the case to be buried in a barrel, and the whole responsibility will be probably put on a Bangladeshi worker’s shoulders," said Soueid.

"We will not know the value of the smuggled oil, and since when exactly the smuggling has started? Was it since the company's license issuance or before that, and are there any other parties …or mediators .... involved in the case?" He asked.

In another article that is no less ironic and titled "Everything is Well Sir!”, Hail Al-Abdan wrote in "Al-Watan" newspaper: "Thank God that everything is going well, and as a proof, I did not find anything worth talking about."

"Even though I spent hours searching for any development or event related to domestic issues, I only found one small and simple event, which is the detection of a company’s oil smuggling outside of Saudi Arabia and through the King Fahd Industrial Port in Yanbu,” said Abdan.

“The issue is "simple" as I said and does not deserve just to be mentioned. As a proof, the name of the company involved in the scandal was neither mentioned nor were the names of any of its officials. It would be inappropriate to libel the company, or its executive directors who are responsible for the operation, everything is "Well, Sir!”

Jeddah’s syndrome

The readers’ comments were all condemning and disapproving of the "vampires of the people", as one of them wrote.

"For eleven years oil has been stolen from our people and smuggled without control or punishment? Why is that? Nobody is left in the country?” Wondered Khaled.

"Eleven years only! It’s no simple matter ... I hope our distinguished sheikhs will warn us about such things as they are forbidden and the money they generate is haram (illicit)!" said Badr al-Badawi.

"Abu Kayan" chose to address King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, by saying: "O Abu Mota’ab add this to the previous issues ... like the Jeddah floods... and worse is yet to come! We must tackle corruption and find the ones responsible for the stolen oil and the lost billions.”

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37288.