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Navy seizes sixth vessel for allegedly 'smuggling' palm oil
The Indonesian Navy detained a Singaporean-flagged vessel on Thursday, the sixth vessel that has been detained to date for attempted violation of Indonesia's export ban on cooking oil raw materials.
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Indonesian Navy Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Agung Prasetiawan (left) inspects a container filled with cartons of cooking oil on May 6, 2022 at Belawan Port in Medan, North Sumatra. The cargo was seized from a vessel detained on Thursday for attempting to violate the export ban on cooking oil raw materials that has been in force since late April. (Agence France-Press/Jakfar)
T
he Indonesian Navy has detained five foreign-flagged vessels and one Indonesian-flagged vessel for attempting to transport palm oil outside the country in direct violation of the palm oil rules currently in force.
The government imposed a mandatory domestic market obligation (DMO) for producers in late January, followed in late April by an export ban on cooking oil raw materials, which includes crude palm oil (CPO), refined palm oil and refined, bleached, deodorized (RBD) palm olein.
The latest detention involved the Singaporean-flagged MV Mathu Bhum on Thursday, when it was caught in waters off the port of Belawan in Medan, North Sumatra, carrying 34 containers of RBD palm olein en route to Port Klang, Malaysia.
“The Indonesian Navy will continue its operations at sea to enforce the export ban on palm oil," Navy Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Agung Prasetiawan told a press conference at Belawan Port on Friday afternoon.
Agung added that the Navy’s First, Second and Third fleet commands (Koarmada) were in charge of the operations in all Indonesian waters.
The five other tankers were the TB Ever Sunrise sailing under the Malaysian flag, MV World Progress (Liberia), MT W. Blossom (Tuvalu), MV Annabelle (China) and the Indonesian-flagged MV Toto XVI, all detained by the Navy’s Koarmada I that secures western Indonesian waters.
Koarmada I commander Rear Adm. Arsyad Abdullah explained that Ever Sunrise was carrying more than 1,799 metric tons (t) of palm acid oil (PAO), a by-product of the chemical refinement of palm oil, while World Progress was carrying 34,854 t of palm olein, W. Blossom 8,000 t of CPO, Toto XVI 2,800 t of RBD and Annabelle 13.3 million t of CPO.
