VietNamNet Bridge – Truck drivers who transport petrol from Cat Lai Port, HCM City, frequently stop at huts along Le Phung Hieu road to sell petrol. VietNamNet discovered more.

A driver was stealing petrol.

Stealing petrol

At 9am, the first tank trucks leave Cat Lai Port, HCM City. At that time, huts along Le Phung Hieu road also start working. Some men put plastic 50l oil cans outside hut doors.

At around 9.15am, a tank truck appears and stops at a hut. The driver jumps down from the cabin with a plastic pipe. He climbs up on the tank to open the lid and thens put the pipe into the tank to suck petrol out into the oil cans.

For tanks that are sealed, drivers open them from below to get petrol. Drivers often steal around 2-3 50l oil cans and some up to 5-6 cans.

Sometimes, up to 3-4 tank trucks stop on Le Phung Hieu road and the scene is very animated. Drivers and petrol buyers talk to each other at ease, like they are not doing anything wrong.

However, the “petrol market” on Le Phung Hieu road, HCM City is not as bustling as the market on provincial road 25B.

A VietNamNet reporter played the role of a petrol trader and met a woman named B, the owner of a hut on provincial road 25B. This hut is only 8sq.m and is a site to collect glass and plastic bottles for recycling. But behind the hut were several dozen 50l oil cans.

The woman said if that volume was not enough, she would take us to a man named Hung, the largest trader of petrol in the region, who can provide thousands of litres of petrol.

We stayed for nearly one hour at this hut and witnessed over ten tank trucks stopping there to sell petrol. These tanks had logos of petrol-trading companies in the south like Sai Gon Petro and Comeco.

This hut is one of dozens of huts along provincial 25B that ostensibly purchase waste for recycling, but actually, they are there to buy petrol stolen from trucks.

The owner of a hut there told VietNamNet that she bought around 20 50l oil cans per day, or around 1,000l. With the dozens of huts there, the volume of stolen petrol must be huge.

Mixing water with petrol

Pouring water into the tank.

After stealing petrol from tanks, drivers often pour water into the tank to conceal the lost volume. This is one of drivers’ tricks to steal petrol. 

In the 1990s, when petrol prices didn’t change often, filling stations were not aware of petrol theft. Drivers, after stealing petrol, didn’t pour water into tanks but waited until noon to transport petrol to filling stations. At that time, because of high temperatures, petrol would expand. If buyers measured the volume, they wouldn’t have discovered the missing volume.

 Another trick employed previously was drivers made a small tank inside a big tank. When filing stations checked the volume in the big tank, they found the volume was correct, but after they sucked petrol out of the big tank, a small volume of petrol remained in the small tank.

Since the above tricks were discovered, drivers have made small valves underneath the tanks. This trick also helps them deal with sealed tanks. After stealing petrol, drivers mix kerosene and even water into the tank to cheat filling stations.

What do agencies say?

Filling stations cannot control the transportation process. Meanwhile, petrol providers say that they are not responsible for transportation.

Le Thai Anh Man, vice head of Saigon Petro, a big petrol provider in the south, told VietNamNet that she had heard about this phenomenon.

Man said Saigon Petro leases tank trucks to some firms to transport petrol from Cat Lai Port to filling stations. When the trucks leave its warehouses, the petrol no longer belongs to Saigon Petrol.

“When I receive petrol, I always measure the volume. If drivers steal petrol and replace it with water or something else, filling stations cannot discover it because we don’t have specialised equipment and knowledge,” Hung, the owner of a filling station on Dien Bien Phu road, HCM City, told VietNamNet.

HCM City Market Control Bureau vice chief Nguyen Trung Binh said the agency is working on a plan to deal with huts on Le Phung Hieu and provincial road 25B.

Binh said stolen petrol is sold at cheap prices to filling stations and thus, there is collusion between drivers and petrol collectors and between petrol collectors and filling stations.

However, preventing petrol stealing is difficult because the market control authorities can only fine petrol collectors for trading petrol without invoices. Binh said the intervention of police is needed to deal with drivers stealing petrol.

Quoc Quang

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