Tag: illegal bunkering

From early February to early March, Australia will engage in monitoring and surveillance activities by aircraft against illicit maritime activities.

Nigeria loses about $25.5 billion annually to illegal maritime activities and another $1.3 billion to illegal bunkering.

The Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) detained two vessels in Johor waters, on 6 October, for illegal ship-to-ship bunker transfers. 

Mexican authorities confiscated a vessel in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz and a warehouse in neighboring Tabasco, along with storage tanks and trucks for illicit transport and storage of hydrocarbons.

According to Reuters, the US Department of State identified seven companies that has blacklisted, due to their involvement in Iranian petrochemincals' transport, marketing and sale. In fact, three of the seven companies are Chinese-based, while another three are in Hong Kong and one in South Africa.

The US will soon issue advisories warning shippers, port officials and insurance companies that it "will target anybody that stores Iranian oil, petrochemicals or refined petroleum in violation of US sanctions". The US will encourage captains to take photos of anyone conducting illegal STS transfers.

An Australian startup, rise-x.io, is collaborating with DNV GL and the National University Singapore’s (NUS) Department of Statistics and Applied Probability on a project that will tackle illegal bunkering. The algorithms that will be used in the project, will firstly be verified for their suitability and they will be integrated directly into rise-x.io’s QuayChain platform.

A Danish Court has recently revealed that Bunker Holding, the marine fuels group, together with its CEO have been charged in relation to an investigation into alleged jet fuel trading in Syria that may have breached EU sanctions.

Singapore’s Police Coast Guard (PCG) in a joint operation with the MPA Singapore arrested 11 men, ageing between 31 - 52, for their suspected involvement in an illegal transaction of marine gas oil (MGO) at sea off Northern Tuas.

Two companies filled lawsuits in federal courts in Texas reporting that ships they operated in 2018 were damaged by contaminated bunker fuel sold by a Valero Energy Co subsidiary Valero Marketing and Supply Co, as Reuters reports.