By Syed Umar Ariff

JOHOR BARU - The recent seizure of several tankers off Pengerang, Kota Tinggi, may shed some light as to why there is a small flotilla of ships anchored there.

Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency southern region commander First Admiral Che Hassan Jusoh said the flotilla might have been used to camouflage illegal oil transfers along the coastline.

He said the MMEA had carried out investigations since early this year in the area, concerning the "gathering" of the ships as frontpaged by the New Straits Times recently.

"Some of the dilapidated ships that were left there for quite some time may have been used to cover the illegal oil transfer activities off Pengerang. We are also bringing them in for other offences as well," said Che Hassan yesterday.

On Saturday and Sunday, he said, eight vessels were detained by the MMEA for illegal oil transfer, illegal tank cleaning (which can only be done at docks to mitigate marine pollution), failing to announce entry in foreign waters and for not paying for a permit to anchor in local waters.

The first three ships were detained on Saturday. MT Rahmah 1 and MT Jet were found to have been involved in illegal oil transfer while MT Ktos II for failing to pay for the permit.

Che Hassan said all the ships were detained at 2.8 nautical miles south of Tanjung Setapa, Pengerang at 11.38am.

Initial investigations revealed that 303,000 litres of marine gas oil were found on Rahmah 1. Some 1,000 litres of it had been transferred to the MT Jet.

Rahmah 1 is registered in Panama and owned by an Indonesian shipping company, while Jet and Ktos II did not have any shipping documents.

"Checks revealed that there were 17 Indonesian crewmen on the three vessels. They are being detained to facilitate investigations."

The other five ships were detained on Sunday during an operation called Ops Perkasa Selatan. They were MT Suwito (registered in Jakarta, Indonesia); Her Chang (La Paz, Bolivia); MT Antago Power and MT Antago 5 (both San Lorenzo, Honduras); and, Eastern Hill, the crew of which did not possess any shipping documents.

Che Hassan said the Suwito was believed to have been conducting illegal tank cleaning activities while the others had failed to inform the authorities of their arrival in local waters.

He said the ships were located within a stone's throw of each other, 3.8 nautical miles southeast of Tanjung Setapa.