Tanker carrying jet fuel due to arrive in Yangon on Saturday

A tanker ship carrying airplane fuel is scheduled to arrive in Yangon on Saturday after departing from Singapore’s Jurong Island on Tuesday, according to data from several marine tracking websites. The Panama-registered tanker SANTYA is loaded with Jet A1 fuel, which can be used both for commercial aviation and military aircraft, documents seen by Myanmar Now showed. Activists from Justice for Myanmar last month condemned a similar shipment of fuel made by PetroChina International Singapore and said the company was “complicit in atrocities.” It is unclear which company is supplying the new shipment and how much fuel will be delivered. The PetroChina shipment was 13,300 tonnes. Since seizing power on February 1, the coup regime has launched numerous indiscriminate airstrikes in Kachin, Kayah, Chin and Karen states, displacing tens of thousands of civilians in its bid to crush armed resistance to its rule. The tanker is likely to discharge its cargo at Yangon’s Thilawa Port, which has terminals for bulk carriers and oil tankers. According to the marine tracking website FleetMon, the ship is operated by ENEOS Ocean Shipmanagement and previously called at Thilawa in April and May from Singapore. A representative from ENEOS declined to comment on the shipment on Wednesday. Justice for Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung called on ENEOS to “immediately halt the shipment.” “It is reckless of ENEOS to ship jet fuel to Myanmar while the illegal military junta is in power, conducting indiscriminate airstrikes, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity with total impunity,” Yadanar Maung told Myanmar Now. The spokesperson for the activist group pointed out that ENEOS is largely owned by Japanese financial institutions who have a duty to stop the company “from contributing to grave human rights violations in Myanmar.” Industry sources told Myanmar Now that the current shipment may have been arranged by Brighter Energy, part of a joint venture with PTT Oil Myanmar, Limited, a company established by the Thai petroleum company PTT. They speculated that it also could have been set up by either Myat Myittar Mon Company, which is owned by the chair of Myanmar Petroleum Trade Association, or Puma Energy Asia Sun, a subsidiary of Puma Energy, which is majority-owned by the global commodities giant Trafigura. Myanmar Now was unable to confirm the sources’ suggestions. Puma Energy, based in Singapore, started distributing aviation fuel under the name National Energy Puma Aviation Services as a joint venture with the state-owned Myanmar Petroleum Products Enterprise in 2015. On February 11 the company said it had suspended its operations in Myanmar following the coup for safety reasons, leaving its local partner to take over. The company also suspended petrol sales at Myitkyina airport in late May, saying its trucks were having difficulties reaching the area. The airport has been used by the military to launch airstrikes against the Kachin Independence Army, which recently attacked several trucks it suspected of carrying jet fuel.

Tanker carrying jet fuel due to arrive in Yangon on Saturday

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