Oil smugglers, hoarders in Thailand worsen supply crisis as Anutin warns of tough times

A Thai farmer refuels diesel into an oil drum at a gas station in Ayutthaya province on Wednesday.

Thai farmers are struggling with shortages of diesel, fertiliser, and insecticides, amid the ongoing Iran war.

Photo: EPA From sea transfers by smugglers and hoarding to stockpiling underground, profiteering from the oil crunch in Thailand has exacerbated a supply crisis that Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul warned on Monday was about to worsen, given the country’s reliance on fuel imports.

As diesel pump prices hit an all-time high of around 50 baht (US$1.54) a litre on Monday, Justice Minister Major-General Rutthaphon Naowarat told reporters that “oil has definitely gone missing”, saying it was too early to determine “whether it’s 57 or 58 million litres”.

The volumes under investigation – representing nearly two days of the nation’s entire normal usage – point to a serious crime at a time of national emergency, triggered by the US-Israel war on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial gateway for fuel shipments to Asia.

Since the crisis began at the end of February, Anutin has been at pains to say Thailand holds about three months of fuel supplies to ride out the emergency.

But within days of Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, reports snowballed in Thailand of gas stations running short or rationing fuel, raising questions about the missing oil, given Thailand’s apparent surplus.

Now, the southern province of Surat Thani is the epicentre of a police probe into purported oil hoarding.

Police are probing the entire supply chain from oil depots to gas stations to determine where the leakage occurred.

Data from ship movements suggests that stocks might have been taken out to sea and transported back to land for sale at high profits when prices surged days later, warping the market with supply shortages. “Abnormal vessel movement patterns may indicate mid-sea fuel transfers,” Admiral Thadawut Thatphithakkul, Chief of Staff of the Royal Thai Navy, told a police briefing on Friday. “Vessels were moving more slowly than usual, deliberately slowing their journeys and stalling for time, which may be another contributing factor to fuel hoarding.” In Surat Thani, the initial probe found that deliveries were taking two or more days instead of the usual one day, with a total of around 50 million litres of oil involved. “Although it represents only a single day’s delay, the increase in fuel prices during that period means the financial va

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