Two foreign ships have been fined a total of VND137 million (over US$6,000) for trading diesel oil illegally in Vietnamese waters, the Vietnamese Coast Guard announced on June 12.

The Pacific Ocean was being escorted to the shore.

A ship named Pacific Ocean, which was flying a Singaporean flag, was caught transferring diesel oil to an unnamed steel-hulled ship bearing no flags in the waters roughly 45 nautical miles northeast of the Ngang Pass on April 11.

Aboard the Pacific Ocean were 17 crew members, captained by Indonesian citizen Darwis Bin Asikin (born 1980), while there were three crew members and approximately 800,000 litres of diesel oil on the unnamed ship.

According to Darwis Bin Asikin, on April 8, the Pacific Ocean was directed by Far East Shipping & Trading Pte Ltd to receive 4.9 million litres of diesel oil from Charlotte in Vietnamese waters and was caught by the Vietnamese coast guard three days later.

After nearly two months of investigation, the Coast Guard has found that the actions of Pacific Ocean and the unnamed ship, as well as the origin of nearly 5 million litres of diesel oil, are illegal.

In addition to the fine, all of the nearly 5 million litres of diesel oil was also confiscated and auctioned for VND57 billion (US$2.5 million).

Nhan Dan