Man jailed over theft of marine gas oil worth S$3.5m from Shell’s Pulau Bukom refinery

SINGAPORE — The chief officer of a ship that received stolen cargo has become the first to be dealt with in court on Thursday (July 11), in relation to the massive theft of marine gas oil from Shell Eastern Petroleum’s biggest regional refinery on Pulau Bukom.

Eight former Shell employees and several others, including Dang Van Hanh, were nabbed after a police operation on Jan 7 last year. 

Dang, 38, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ jail on Thursday. 

The Vietnamese admitted to aiding in receiving 5,592 metric tonnes of stolen gas oil in total on four occasions, valued at about US$2.59 million (S$3.5 million).

Prosecutors said that investigations have uncovered the misappropriation of gas oil by two syndicates of Shell employees at Pulau Bukom “on an unprecedented scale”.

Shell operates a refinery on the island — its largest petrochemical production and export centre in the Asia-Pacific region.

As part of their scheme, two Vietnamese vessels would enter the refinery to receive legitimately purchased gas oil, but they would also take stolen gas oil that Shell employees had sold to them through arrangements made by others, prosecutors said.

The police began investigating when a Shell representative filed a report in August 2017, saying that the firm had suffered a loss of fuel amounting to a value of about S$2.98 million in April that year.

A report from December last year stated that around US$150 million (S$206 million) worth of oil was stolen from the refinery over several years, in incidents dating back to 2014.

WHAT HAPPENED IN JANUARY 2018

Before Dang’s ship Prime South arrived in Singapore on Jan 4, 2018, his captain Nguyen Duc Quang told him that they would be receiving illegal cargo from Pulau Bukom.

When Dang was assigned to Prime South as its chief officer in November 2017, his predecessor told him that the ship had previously received such illegal cargo from Shell at Pulau Bukom a number of times to earn extra money.

On Jan 6, 2018, Prime South received instructions to dock at the Pulau Bukom wharf for cargo to be loaded. 

While they were on the way there, the captain told Dang that they would be receiving about 9,000 metric tonnes of legitimately purchased gas oil.

They filled nine of the 12 tanks on the ship with that, and filled the other three with 1,593 metric tonnes of the stolen gas oil.

When they completed their task at about 5.40am the next day, two Shell employees came onboard to disconnect the hose, then left the ship.

Shortly after, police officers boarded the vessel and arrested Dang, among other individuals.

NOT HIS FIRST TIME

The court also heard that Dang used to be a crew member of Prime Sun. Both ships were owned by Prime Shipping Corporation.

Around Sept 9, 2016, the captain told him they would be receiving stolen gas oil from Shell at Pulau Bukom. Dang helped to prepare a stowage plan, and also helped his unsuspecting crew members to get ready to receive the gas oil.

Dang would be paid between US$1,000 to US$2,000 for each occasion that he helped with the offences on Prime Sun.

For dishonestly receiving stolen property, he could have been jailed up to five years, fined, or both.