A tanker ship carrying aviation fuel arrived in Yangon’s Thilawa terminal on Sunday morning for discharge after departing from Singapore’s Jurong Island earlier this week, according to sources at the terminal and vessel schedules published by the Myanma Port Authority (MPA).
The Panama-registered tanker SANTYA is loaded with Jet A1 fuel, the MPA’s documents seen by Myanmar Now showed. The fuel can be used both for commercial aviation and military aircraft.
The ship berthed at the Puma Jetty in Yangon’s Thilawa Port on Sunday early morning with security personnel from the navy present at the jetty, according to a source at the terminal who asked not to be named. There were also unmarked tanker trucks located around the jetty to transport the fuel, he added.
“The ship’s name is SANTYA. It had called at the terminal frequently before, too. The navy has deployed many security forces there,” he told Myanmar Now.
According to the MPA’s daily berthing schedules, the SANTYA will depart the Puma jetty at around 6pm on Monday after discharge. It is unclear which petroleum company supplied the shipment and how much fuel was delivered.
According to the marine tracking website FleetMon, the SANTYA is operated by ENEOS Ocean Shipmanagement and previously called at Thilawa in April and May from Singapore.
Since seizing power on February 1, the coup regime has launched multiple aggressive airstrikes in Kachin, Kayah, Chin and Karen states, displacing tens of thousands of civilians in its bid to crush armed resistance to its rule.
Activists from Justice for Myanmar accused the company of being “reckless” for supplying 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.”
Justice for Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung 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.”
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 for safety reasons following the coup, leaving its local partner to take over. The company also suspended petrol sales at the Myitkyina airport in Kachin State in late May, saying its trucks were experiencing difficulties reaching the area.
Puma Energy’s Yangon office did not answer calls seeking comment on the Sunday shipment to its jetty.
On Friday, another ship called Yu Dong berthed at the Myat Myittar Mon jetty, located next to the Puma jetty, and discharged “diesel oil and motor gasoline,” according to the MPA data. It departed the jetty on Sunday afternoon.
The same ship had called at Yangon port in April and discharged a PetroChina shipment of 13,300 tonnes of Jet A1 fuel at the Puma jetty, according to both the MPA data and a report by Reuters.
Myat Myittar Mon jetty is run by a company by the same name and owned by businessman Win Myint, chair of the Myanmar Petroleum Trade Association.
On May 17, the company released a statement rejecting an accusation that it had been supplying the military with aviation fuel and declaring that it would bring lawsuits against those who made such allegations.
