Thanks News.
Well, it may be that our local oil barons were keeping a close national-interest eye on the pirate loot after all.
Trying to get the bent Thais to seize it - unsuccessful. (see "bent Thais" for explanation)
Then alerting the Indo's who did then seize it. (probably because the Thais had already grabbed the captains bribe budget, so they decided to go the sieze/extortion scam instead)

Or not.
They were always going to have a "legit" story weren't they? everybody.

One thing that it does highlight tho' - IF the KrisEnergy principals did in fact try to hijack the booty.
ie, just how totally crooked they are and always have been. imo.
They have been working this phoney wildcat bonanza gusher scam ever since the day they bought out Chevron.

$1.5 billion bucks they splurged thru
- approx half in cash for "operations" (mostly to themselves for 'services' etc.)
and half in destroyed small shareholder value plus unpaid bank debt (don't sweat, the financiers made lots of top interest and fees along the way - and some scavengings from the carcass)

Plus the old insider-trading stock market scam - who knows how many 100s of mill they made there.

(Ps - there is a flocking good book in this if anybody has an orderly mind - they will need it to explain the "fractured geomorphological complex" that the Apsara story is)

LOL.
After the world press - including all the famous Western media "expert" commentators on Cambodia - scored an Epic Fail on KrisEnergy and the Aspara field, they are now all jumping on board a nice easy story about a $20 million dollar theft.
Not a whisper before or now about the massive scandal behind the project generally.

Perhaps they are embarrassed for being such stooges and just reprinting KrisEnergy's press releases all their lives.
- but i doubt it. I think they are still just totally clueless.

Reuters, yesterday
Cambodia's oil export ambitions sink with "stolen" tanker standoff

PHNOM PENH/SINGAPORE, Aug 27 (Reuters) - When Cambodian officials commemorated the start of the country's first oil project in June by preserving the first drops of production at a high profile ceremony, they heralded the country's emergence as a budding oil exporter at the heart of Asia.

But instead of reaping royalties, Cambodia's government has filed a theft complaint against the crew of the tanker that stored the crude, after they sailed away with the oil amid a payment dispute with the oil field's developer.

Singapore-based KrisEnergy, which owns a 95% stake in the offshore Apsara field in the Gulf of Thailand, was forced into liquidation shortly after production began in December 2020. Cost overruns and poor oil yields from the project had left the company unable to repay debt. read more

KrisEnergy's collapse also ended hopes of further oil sale proceeds for the Cambodian government, which owns the remaining 5% stake. All operations were halted and are deemed unlikely to resume given poor extraction rates, according to a local media report citing the Cambodian Ministry of Mines and Energy in July. read more

That's likely to be a major disappointment to Cambodian authorities, who had anticipated roughly $500 million in tax and royalty revenues over the project's lifetime.

The output stoppage means all there is left to show for Cambodia's oil production efforts now lies in the belly of the MT Strovolos, the 300,000-barrel tanker that had stored the oil produced at the site until it was forced to divert last month in search of a fresh crew and has now been detained by the Indonesian navy.

The Cambodian energy ministry, KrisEnergy and its liquidators did not respond to requests for comment.

LEGAL DEADLOCK

With the fully-laden vessel now impounded in Batam, and KrisEnergy's liquidation proceedings still under way, lawyers who have been tracking developments predict a lengthy dispute over who owns and can sell the oil.

"I expect that if the Cambodian Government wants to detain the cargo and have it shipped back to Cambodia, there may arise competing claimants who are saying they are lawful owners of the cargo, potentially including the liquidator of KrisEnergy," said Peter Doraisamy, managing partner at PDLegal LLC.

"It is likely to take several years at the very minimum depending on which jurisdiction is seized of the case, and there is possibility that cases may be brought in more than one jurisdiction and by different parties."

A key fundamental question is who actually owns the crude cargo, currently valued at around $20 million, now that KrisEnergy has become insolvent.

"The ship owner may not actually know who owns the cargo, and he's not a party to any of those contracts, he just gets told what to do by the charterer," said Leon Alexander, partner at Clyde & Co.

"But the shipowner owes a legal obligation to that person who is the cargo owner, he's got to look after and care for the cargo. And he's not allowed to deliver the cargo to the wrong person or act in a manner inconsistent with the rights of the cargo owner, or he faces a legal claim in conversion."

Indonesian authorities have taken steps to secure the vessel and its contents for investigation, Laode Muhamad, a spokesman for the Indonesian Navy told Reuters.

"Based on the provisions of the shipping law, the ship and its documents and cargo are evidence for which approval for confiscation is requested for investigation purposes,” he said.

DIM FUTURE

While legal manoeuvring around the cargo is just getting under way, oil analysts say production at the field will likely remain stopped, even with the recovery in oil prices and demand this year.

"The poor publicity surrounding Apsara leaves the government with a Herculean task trying to attract other players into the Cambodian hydrocarbon sector," said Rystad analyst Readul Islam.

"I suspect that the shadow of Apsara will hang over Cambodia’s hydrocarbon attempts for some time."

I would think the owner of the tanker is probably owed money as well. Kris energy owned the crude.
Good luck recovering the 5% royalty on that!

Speaking of Indonesia, does anybody remember BreEx?

Bre-X. Thanks for the memories.


What a convoluted tale that was. !!!!!!!! I don't think they ever really got to the bottom of it.
My feeling is that the scam galloped way miles ahead of what it's instigators planned.
Indo Gov, Suharto's family, Freeport, plus a hole heap of other BigBiz and bad actors all jumped into party the minute the ramping escalated into the billions.

They just didn't know when to stop with salt shaker.
FFS, they ran out of gold dust to add to the assays at one point, and had to shave down 18 carat engagement rings from the local pawn shop.
Of course both the Zambian gold dust and the engagement rings were always going to be IDed as coming from another planet the minute some real assayers were bought in to protect the Suharto family interests.

The poor geologist bloke that surgically removed his hands and penis at the same time as leaping from a helicopter into the jungle below probably got off lightly.
Lucky he "suicided" before Suharto's sister caught up with him.

Cambodia Says ‘Loopholes’ May Have Led to Oil Theft as NGOs Urge Probe
Cambodia's government should now investigate how so much oil could have been taken out of the country so easily, NGOs say.
2021-08-27

A tanker with nearly 300,000 barrels of crude oil that went missing last month may have left Cambodia unnoticed due to “loopholes” in enforcement, a ruling party spokesman said Friday, while local NGOs called on the government to investigate any possible official role in the alleged theft.

The M.T. Strovolos, the ship carrying the oil, was seized by Indonesian authorities on July 17 when the Bahamian-flagged tanker anchored off Sumatra with its identification system turned off, three days after Phnom Penh issued an Interpol red notice about the alleged theft.

Sok Ey San, spokesperson for Cambodia’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party, said on Friday that “loopholes by authorities might have contributed to the tanker’s slipping away from Cambodia,” but that proper follow-up led to the arrests.

“When we lost the tanker, we asked for international help, such as Interpol, to intervene. In general, we have now done everything we are supposed to do,” he said.

The Indonesian navy made its arrest of the ship and its captain and crew only on the basis of navigational violations, though, and not in response to the Interpol notice, said Navy spokesperson First Admiral Julius Widjojono, speaking in response to a request for comment by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

“In the diplomatic note or red notice sent by the Cambodian government to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there was no request for the return of the crude oil to Cambodia,” Widjojono said. “The return of evidence will depend on a court decision,” he added.

Cambodia’s government must now thoroughly investigate how so much oil could have been taken so easily out of the country, one NGO worker told RFA, adding that local authorities may have been involved in allowing the theft.

“We need to investigate this case thoroughly and release a report to the public. How could they steal such a large amount of crude oil?” said Yong Kim Eng, president of the People’s Centre for Development and Peace.

Transparency International Cambodia (TI Cambodia) Executive Director Pech Pisey also called on Phnom Penh to work with the Indonesian government to bring back the Strovolos to resolve outstanding questions with the Singapore-based oil and gas company KrisEnergy, which had rented the tanker-ship for oil storage.
Full article: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambod ... 72842.html

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Sat Aug 28, 2021 1:18 pm Bre-X. Thanks for the memories.


What a convoluted tale that was. !!!!!!!! I don't think they ever really got to the bottom of it.
My feeling is that the scam galloped way miles ahead of what it's instigators planned.
Indo Gov, Suharto's family, Freeport, plus a hole heap of other BigBiz and bad actors all jumped into party the minute the ramping escalated into the billions.

They just didn't know when to stop with salt shaker.
FFS, they ran out of gold dust to add to the assays at one point, and had to shave down 18 carat engagement rings from the local pawn shop.
Of course both the Zambian gold dust and the engagement rings were always going to be IDed as coming from another planet the minute some real assayers were bought in to protect the Suharto family interests.

The poor geologist bloke that surgically removed his hands and penis at the same time as leaping from a helicopter into the jungle below probably got off lightly.
Lucky he "suicided" before Suharto's sister caught up with him.

Good memory. I think deGuzman was the only one who got away.

I find it ver hard to believe the Skipper or the Shipping company just slipped away quietly in the night with a shitload, sorry, shipload of
Cambodia-KrisEnergy's oil.

#1. Oil tankers don't run very fast even if they are wearing a pair of shoplifted Nike and a black hoodie.
#2 The ship's operator is Singapore registered World Tankers Management. They appear to have 17 ships under management. I doubt if they would run the risk of ripping off "highly connected" Singapore based maritime giant Keppel Corp, who is now the de facto owner of KrisEnergy's assets.
# 3 I find it hard to believe either Keppel or Cambodia would be sleeping on the job and not have pinged the heist as it happened.

But that is without knowing or having researched anything. Not sure if i will bother. It will probably be an interesting tale but it's not really my kind of gig.
No worries, the papers will be full of it - because a $20 mill theft is far more interesting to most media and thier readers these days than a $1.5 bill stock market rort, company and national governance, environmental tragedies and Cambodia's dashed hopes for a paying prospect.

Action over oil theft: Cambodia to punish perpetrators after return of tanker and crew

The Cambodian government will take legal action against those responsible for the theft of millions of dollars in oil after it secures the return of a tanker and its crew who allegedly shipped it away.

This comes after Indonesia’s navy announced on Wednesday that it had taken into custody the Bahamian-flagged tanker MT Strovolos, which Cambodia claims is carrying nearly 300,000 barrels worth $21 million of crude allegedly stolen from Singapore-based KrisEnergy which had been given the rights to drill for oil in the Kingdom.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan clarified yesterday that Indonesia had seized the tanker because it had entered the country’s waters without permission and not because of a complaint from Cambodia.

“The ship illegally entered their territory so it was seized. We (Cambodia) did not know about their arrest,” he said.

He added that the Cambodian government has appealed to Indonesian authorities to cooperate in securing the return of the tanker.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Cambodia had filed a formal complaint with the Interpol on July 30 involving the theft of the 300,000 barrels by an oil company from the Gulf of Cambodia.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman Kim Santepheap said on Friday the two ministries and International Cooperation will be taking legal action when the Indonesian authorities send back the detained vessel and crew.

He added that the ministries will use the ASEAN Agreement on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters to request legal cooperation and extradition (Cambodia-Indonesia) to extradite the crew.

Santepheap said Cambodia will also seek the cooperation of Indonesia to hand over among others all evidence and the vessel for legal action and trial under Cambodian law.

Santepheap said that although Indonesia has yet to extradite the perpetrators and hand over the vessel, the two governments will use international treaties, transnational crime and the Asean agreement as legal mechanisms in relation to this case between the two countries.

He added that Cambodia will charge the perpetrators of smuggling crude oil from Cambodia to Indonesia in accordance with the special law on “management and use and disposal of state property” together with “violation of state public property”.

Koy Kuong, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman, told Khmer Times yesterday that Cambodia “wants our oil back in our country.”

In June, it was reported that KrisEnergy revealed it was heading into liquidation and exploration in Cambodia was halted.

Two months after the collapse of Cambodia’s first oil venture, the spotlight has turned to the fate of millions of dollars worth of oil pumped from the country’s offshore concession before production was halted – with the focus now on the ship seized by Indonesia.

The MT Strovolos, its captain and 19 crew members were detained by a patrol boat on July 27 in waters off Indonesia’s Riau, the navy said in a statement.

The tanker was “illegally” anchored in Indonesian waters with its transponders turned off and loaded with 297,686 barrels of crude, the navy said. It also said the tanker was taken to a nearby base and all on board were detained, including the Bangladeshi captain and crew members – 13 Indians, three other Bangladeshis and three citizens of Myanmar.

The ship’s Singapore-based operator, World Tankers Management, in a statement late Wednesday “strongly” denied the oil was loaded illegally and rejected the claim that it did not have permission to anchor in Indonesian waters.

The company said Cambodia’s “wrongful allegations” had created “humanitarian issues” and, as a result, it has sought the involvement of the UN Human Rights Office and “diplomatic channels.”

“Our crew are entirely innocent and blameless in this matter and should not come to bear the brunt of commercial and political issues,” the statement said.

The company said it denied all allegations made by both the Indonesian authorities and the Cambodian government that it had committed a crime related to oil smuggling, while also expressing concern about its crew after the Cambodian government asked Interpol to issue a red notice for their arrest in a bid to extradite them back to Cambodia.

World Tankers said in its statement that it had loaded the crude on the understanding that it belonged to its charterers, but added they defaulted on payment and terminated its service.

The company said it had requested “the owners of the cargo” to remove the oil by a ship-to-ship transfer at a “convenient and practical location.”

However, “no agreement has been reached to enable this to occur,” the statement said.

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50925299/a ... -and-crew/

This may be getting close to the crux.

KrisEnergy has contracted this tanker for months to store the oil as it was pumped from the well.
KE goes bankrupt - so the ship's owner quickly tells the ship to skip Cambodia to protect his debt and to prevent the ship being held for years while the bankruptcy and the oil's ownership goes through the courts.

Sounds like a plan - but they did not quite manage to pull it off.

?? (< still)

Cambodia has filed a complaint about the $21 million cargo

PHNOM PENH--Crude oil worth $21 million from a Cambodian oilfield was taken to Thailand after bankrupt rig operator KrisEnergy couldn’t pay for the hire of the tanker on which it was stored.

Cheap Sour, director-general of the General Department of Petroleum at the Ministry of Mines and Energy, said the individual who ordered the tanker to flee to Thailand was a creditor of KrisEnergy.

Before KrisEnergy announced it was bankrupt, it pumped 290,000 barrels of oil from the Apsara well area, or Block A, which it kept on the tanker.

"The oil tanker that stole the Cambodian oil and ran away is one that KrisEnergy leased from other people," he said. "After we filed a complaint about the oil, the owner told us KrisEnergy owed them money."

The ministry is continuing legal proceedings with KrisEnergy.

Meanwhile, he said no new company had applied to invest in the oil business in Cambodia yet. The country has about 20 blocks both inland and at sea. HE confirmed earlier that Cambodia's first oil and gas venture may fail due to the bankruptcy of KrisEnergy.

https://cambodianess.com/article/tanker ... owed-money

Cambodianess - Thmey Thmey in English

I know who one salty old seafarer is starting to believe
... when he hadn't heard one word that made ship-sense before

TRADEWINDS
The Global Shipping News Source

Tankers
28 July 2021 2:53 GMT
By Jonathan Boonzaier in Singapore

Operator of seized Strovolos fought to have charterer remove cargo
World Tankers says owner of fuel cargo ignored requests to unload it before tanker was forced to leave Cambodia

Singapore-based World Tankers Management demanded for months that a non-performing charterer that fixed its tanker Strovolos to store oil off Cambodia remove its cargo from the vessel.

The 47,100-dwt Strovolos (built 1999) was seized by the Indonesian Navy off the island of Batam at the end of July after Cambodian authorities issued an Interpol red alert claiming it stole the country's crude.

World Tankers Management shoots back after oil theft reports
World Tankers Management on Wednesday strongly denied that the tanker and its crew were involved in such an oil heist.

The Polys Haji-Ioannou-linked company said the Strovolos was left with an overdue crew and was almost out of bunkers when its former charterer defaulted. The company claimed it had sailed to the Indonesian island of Batam to carry out a crew change after bunkering in Thailand.

Industry sources in Singapore familiar with the ship’s predicament said World Tankers had asked many times to have the oil removed from the ship after the charterer failed to pay hire.

These sources, together with authorities in Cambodia and Indonesia, named the charterer as Singapore-based independent upstream company KrisEnergy.

TradeWinds’ sister publication Upstream reported in June that KrisEnergy, which had been banking its success on revenues from its Apsara oilfield off Cambodia, ran out of cash after Apsara’s production proved lackluster.

Out of options, KrisEnergy submitted a winding-up petition to the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands on 4 June, with Borelli Walsh in Singapore appointed as liquidators.

Oil stuck aboard
World Tankers Management's said its request to have the oil left on board the Strovolos transferred to another ship after the charter was cancelled were ignored.

One industry source said the charter payment problems began long before KrisEnergy filed for bankruptcy.

“World Tankers had been screaming for months for KrisEnergy to come and get its oil. It received no response,” the source said.

World Tankers said that after the charter was terminated and the vessel withdrawn from its service, it requested that the owner of the cargo arrange to remove it from the vessel by ship-to-ship transfer at a convenient and practical location, but no agreement was reached to enable this to occur.

The company claimed that the Strovolos left Cambodia purely for operational reasons. It said the ship needed to be refuelled, and the crew needed to be changed out because contracts had expired, and the Cambodian government was kept informed.

That claim did not appease Cheap Suor, director general of petroleum at the Cambodian Ministry of Mines and Energy, who told the AFP newswire service that KrisEnergy “reported to our government that the tanker stole the oil”.

Restructuring advisory company Kroll, into which KrisEnergy’s liquidator Borelli Walsh has been merged, declined to answer TradeWinds' questions about the demands to remove the cargo, and to whom the cargo on board the vessel belonged.

Indonesia’s navy claimed it was questioning the Bangladeshi master and 18 other seafarers from Bangladesh, India and Myanmar. Officials said the navy arrested the Strovolos both for illegally anchoring without permission — something that World Tankers has vehemently denied — and because of a request from the Cambodian government.

The captain could face up to a year in prison and a $14,000 fine if convicted on maritime violation charges, the navy added.

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