Saudi Petroleum Ministry thwarts smuggling 9 million liters of diesel

The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources pointed out that its follow-up with a number of security and competent agencies has succeeded in thwarting one of the largest diesel smuggling operation by monitoring the movement of nearly 450 tank containers loaded with the amount of nine million liters of diesel that has been prepared in a number of locations in Riyadh and the Eastern Region, and headed towards King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam, where it was fallen in the grip of customs at the port.

The Ministry said in a statement today that this operation is the largest attempt to smuggle diesel since the start of the application of checking procedures using advanced fuel discrimination marker technique, where in that operation, it was resorted to hide the trace of diesel by mixing it with some chemicals, but the higher cooperation between the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Saudi Customs and the vigilance of customs inspectors prevented the success of the smuggling operation.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources pointed out that that to limit those attempts, the Ministry coordinated with Saudi Customs and Saudi Aramco by equipping a number of specialized laboratories to use the advanced fuel discrimination marker technique, that is added to the chemical composition of a number of fuels, to enable the customs at border ports to detect any attempt to smuggle fuel outside the Kingdom.

It is worth mentioning that the big difference between fuel prices in the Kingdom and prices in neighboring countries is the first motive in the continuation of such attempts from time to time.