Subic heightens oil smuggling alert
By Cecille B. Garcia - Manila Standard Today
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—As oil prices continue to surge, authorities here have heightened the alert to stop all forms of smuggling and pilferage of imported petroleum products shipped through this free port zone.
Gen. (ret.) Jose Calimlim, head of the Subic antismuggling task force, said stricter security measures will be implemented to ensure that unscrupulous oil importers and traders will not use Subic’s tax-free status to smuggle in oil products.
“We are in crisis now because of the unstable prices of crude oil in the world market and it is in this crucial time when wicked-minded smugglers are taking advantage of the situation to gain more profits,” said Calimlim.
He added that the task force will be closely monitoring the operations of all oil companies, traders, retailers and even those engaged in the fuel transshipment business inside the zone through random spot checks and inventories.
Calimlim said the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, through the import-export department headed by lawyer Joy Alvarado, has started validating the volume of present oil stocks in all of the 36 tanks at the former Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant Depot.
“So far, everything is in order and we have not found any discrepancies for SBMA to report oil pilferage or smuggling within the zone but we will remain more vigilant to find proofs of any illegal conduct of fuel trading,” said Alvarado.
Records showed that for March this year, a total of 373,000 barrels of fuel have been imported into the zone out of the total 1.4 million-barrel maximum capacity that could be stored in the 36 oil tankers around Subic Bay.
The task force is likewise counterchecking the inventory of oil supplies passing through the Subic-Clark oil pipeline which could possibly be used in fuel smuggling and pilferage.
“The task force is also keeping its eye on the daily-volume of fuels coming out of Subic Freeport through this pipeline going directly to Clark Special Economic Zone,” Calimlim said.
Calimlim, also the concurrent SBMA senior deputy administrator for operations, said the Subic Task Force has already thwarted various oil smuggling modus operandi, including the so-called “ship-side siphoning” which was done even beyond the water territories of the free port, since last year.
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—As oil prices continue to surge, authorities here have heightened the alert to stop all forms of smuggling and pilferage of imported petroleum products shipped through this free port zone.
Gen. (ret.) Jose Calimlim, head of the Subic antismuggling task force, said stricter security measures will be implemented to ensure that unscrupulous oil importers and traders will not use Subic’s tax-free status to smuggle in oil products.
“We are in crisis now because of the unstable prices of crude oil in the world market and it is in this crucial time when wicked-minded smugglers are taking advantage of the situation to gain more profits,” said Calimlim.
He added that the task force will be closely monitoring the operations of all oil companies, traders, retailers and even those engaged in the fuel transshipment business inside the zone through random spot checks and inventories.
Calimlim said the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, through the import-export department headed by lawyer Joy Alvarado, has started validating the volume of present oil stocks in all of the 36 tanks at the former Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant Depot.
“So far, everything is in order and we have not found any discrepancies for SBMA to report oil pilferage or smuggling within the zone but we will remain more vigilant to find proofs of any illegal conduct of fuel trading,” said Alvarado.
Records showed that for March this year, a total of 373,000 barrels of fuel have been imported into the zone out of the total 1.4 million-barrel maximum capacity that could be stored in the 36 oil tankers around Subic Bay.
The task force is likewise counterchecking the inventory of oil supplies passing through the Subic-Clark oil pipeline which could possibly be used in fuel smuggling and pilferage.
“The task force is also keeping its eye on the daily-volume of fuels coming out of Subic Freeport through this pipeline going directly to Clark Special Economic Zone,” Calimlim said.
Calimlim, also the concurrent SBMA senior deputy administrator for operations, said the Subic Task Force has already thwarted various oil smuggling modus operandi, including the so-called “ship-side siphoning” which was done even beyond the water territories of the free port, since last year.
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