its still a singapore business like bunkering
Are you suggesting that Singapore Government is somehow involved in the trade in luxury goods to North Korea, or in the cheating that has been going on in the bunkering business??
If so you better have some proof and/or a good Lawyer. As you know they don’t take lightly accusations of that nature. .
Singapore Ship Register has clocked up 96 Mill. GT since it’s inception abt. 50 years ago:
PS> I joined my first Singapore registered ship in Nov. 1970, or exactly 50 years ago. Not many ships in the register at that time.
MPA’s International Safety at Sea Awards for this year has been given out:
Updated requirements for ship entry in Singapore:
https://www.mpa.gov.sg/web/portal/home/port-of-singapore/circulars-and-notices/port-marine-circulars/detail/777c126d-ef0c-4c8d-96f2-190e51da691a
For simplicity:
Bunker theft in Singapore has been going on for decades. MPA has been trying hard to stop this by various means. Strict rules have been imposed and the penalty has been increased, but it is still going on, although to a lesser degree than in years past.
Here is a lengthy article from CNA about Bunker theft:
PS> Written by a journalist and partly based on historical events, not present day reality.
They have been geniuses at the game. Employed hidden tanks, “adjustable sounding tubes” and more means of subterfuge. The thing they have in their favor is the ships they are fueling are on a schedule. They will just wear you down. What you going to do? Stay in SG and argue or go to work? It is a blight on the reputation of the government of Singapore but I guess they don’t mind. Never seen a bunkering agent get caned.
No cheating is not a canable offence.
Here is a list of what constitute canable offences in Singapore:
Note: Only males between 18 - 50 and of good health can be caned. Females, juveniles and males over 50 are exempt. If you fall into any of those categories, you are safe.
But I still recommend strongly to stay within the law when you are in Singapore. Laws are strictly enforced and there are no special treatment for foreigners, regardless of nationality.
You guess wrong. They DO mind and a lot has been done to put a stop to this blot on the clean (in more ways than one) reputation that Singapore has and is trying to maintain.
A number of Bunkering licences has been revoked and perpetrators put in jail. (Some have been reported here on the forum):
One of the methods used:
Bunker suppliers would overstate the amount of fuel they pumped into ships, manipulating the conversions between mass (the unit at which fuel is bought) and volume (the unit that measures fuel received).
Mandatory use of Mass Flow Metres was instigated in Singapore in 2017 in an attempt to stop the cheating, but there are ways to manipulate even those.
Singapore remains the only port to date that has put the standards in place to effectively tackle such malpractice and demonstrate a willingness to enforce those rules.
To be a Bunker Surveyor in Singapore used to be fairly unregulated until an training and approval requirement came sometime in 2000s.
I used to sometime do Bunkering Survey in conjunction with On-Hire Survey of OSVs but with these new rules I stuck to only doing ROB Bunker Survey.
All bunker suppliers, bunker craft operators, bunker surveyors and bunker surveying companies operating in the port of Singapore are required to be licensed by MPA
MPA adopts a zero tolerance approach towards bunkering malpractices and will not hesitate to take action against any unlicensed entity operating in the Port of Singapore.Link:
https://www.mpa.gov.sg/web/portal/home/port-of-singapore/services/bunkering/bunkering-services-providers
Cheating is not canable but robbery is? So if you do not hold a gun or knife to steal funds from a ship for charging them for air you claim is fuel that is OK? There is no way the systemic stealing by bunker suppliers in Singapore went on for decades without the complicity of the Singapore government.
How do you draw that conclusion???
It is an offence punishable by prison time, but it is not punishable by caning. Neither is other cheating offences.
PS> To hold a gun against anybody for any reason is a hanging offence in Singapore. (Even if you don’t fire it)
Can we then draw the conclusion that the US Government, or and other Government in the world, is complicit in any similar type of crime that goes on within their jurisdiction??
Fair enough but apparently the cheaters were not afraid of being caught as this practice went on for many years.
“Can we then draw the conclusion that the US Government, or and other Government in the world, is complicit in any similar type of crime that goes on within their jurisdiction??”
That is a reasoning fallacy known as “what about?” As if turning a blind eye to cheating by one government excuses similar actions of another government.
The thing that always has been a mystery to me is Singapore in most respects is one of the least corrupt governments in the world and yet cheating on bunkers went on for decades, and was no secret. My guess? Some quid pro quo involving money.
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Yes Singapore today is among the least corrupt places in the world according to Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index:
The only Asian country among the top 10.
It was not always that way. Back in the 1960s corruption was rampant in Singapore, but strict laws and heavy enforcement since the 1970s has changed that. One reason being that the bribe giver is punished at least as hard as the bribe taker.
I know it is hard to accept, but actually there has been a lot done to stop the bunker cheating and stealing.
The last thing Singapore Government want is that the clean reputation are tarnished. Strict law enforcement is part of that reputation.
Even death penalty for drug trafficking has not managed to stop it entirely. There are always somebody that take the risk if there is enough profit.
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These articles have skipped the part where whole shuttle tankers get hijacked once they leave Singapore going up either straight.
The the other part of fuel theft with Singapore as the focus point.
Not shuttle tankers but small coastal product tankers…
The hijacking of those are reported as Piracy in the monthly IMB Report.
When that happen it it is in the news, both in Singapore and Malaysia
That was quite rampant back some 5-6 years ago, mostly in the South China Sea. Strong suspicion that crew members were involved in many such incidents.
Of late the pirates in that area have taken to hijack tugs and barges that gets taken to the Philippines for re-sale.
PS> This is a shuttle tanker with DP2 Class;
A shuttle tanker is a ship designed for oil transport from an off-shore oil field as an alternative to constructing oil pipelines.
Bet your ass crew was involved Bug.
A report from May 2015. This one happened in the Malacca Strait:
One of the most reported cases of tanker hijacking was this one:
Yes in a few hijacks the Captain and Chief Engineer have never been seen again…