Smuggling racket connected to fuel markers theft – energy source

The theft of fuel markers from the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) is integrated into a “profitable racket” that embraces some GEA employees, fuel smugglers and some legitimate business operators, an energy sector source has told the Stabroek Business.

The source, who agreed to speak with this newspaper on condition of anonymity said that the theft of fuel markers is part of a kickback racket which allows illegally imported fuel to go undetected on the local market and enables the smugglers to provide some legitimate businesses with fuel at a cheaper cost than it can be acquired of the legal market. “Everybody involved benefits,” the source said.

The disclosure was made in the wake of this week’s arrest of three GEA employees following last weekend’s theft of fuel markers from the agency’s Quamina street premises.

While initial media reports had suggested that the thieves were “unknown” the source told Stabroek Business that there was always a high likelihood that the culprits would be caught since the theft of fuel markers is a “specialized pursuit” carried out by persons who understand the value of the markers. “Fuel markers are of no use whatsoever to common thieves. They simply wouldn’t know what to do with it. If you understand the local fuel-smuggling industry, however, you will come to know just how valuable the markers are. Major smugglers pay good money for fuel markers since what they do is to legalize illegal fuel. People on the inside are behind the theft, every time,” the source said. In October last year a similar theft, involving armed men, took place at the GEA’s Quamina street premises. “Doesn’t the fact that the men were armed tell you something about the value of what they were after,” the source enquired.

And according to the source as long as local fuel prices remain high in circumstances where local industry depends on the commodity, fuel smuggling will persist. Earlier this year during a sitting of the National Assembly for the passage of the GEA Amendment Bill 2001 Prime Minister Samuel Hinds had said that the introduction of fuel markers had helped reduce the rate of fuel smuggling from 30 per cent to 5 per cent.

Asked to comment on this pronouncement the source said that while he could not verify it “you wouldn’t have thought so judging from what appears to be the high demand for fuel markers.”

The source said that both the authorities at the GEA and the government were fully aware of the role the fuel markers play in the fuel-smuggling racket. “What is baffling is that given this knowledge the security arrangements for the markers would appear to be less than efficient.”

Fuel identification markers allow for quick visual identification of tank contents and are used both for eliminating the danger of wrong product use and, in the case of Guyana, for distinguishing legally imported fuel from illegal imports.

Earlier this year the oil-producing giant Exxon Mobil reported that an estimated 20 per cent of the fuel available on the Guyana market is smuggled across the border with Venezuela. If this information is accurate it puts into perspective the role that fuel markers could play in either protecting or seriously damaging the local fuel industry.

In August this year, the National Assembly gave its assent to the Guyana Energy Agency (Amendment) Bill 2011 designed to help secure convictions for fuel smugglers.

Senior GEA officials have been tight-lipped on the issue of the recent incident of stolen fuel markers though the source told Stabroek Business that the officials “know exactly what is going on, why the markers are being stolen and may even have a fair idea of where they are likely to end up.”