Police are stepping up an investigation into an oil depot in Ang Thong province after two partner companies submitted key documents, while authorities are also considering whether the case may involve fuel hoarding or sales at prices above controlled levels.
Investigators on Wednesday summoned the companies linked to the depot to provide information and hand over tax invoices and fuel transport documents.
Pol Col Thanatat Sriphiphat, superintendent of Division 2 of the Consumer Protection Police Division (CPPD), said the inquiry remained focused on four main issues:
- whether the fuel meets quality standards
- whether the purchase and transport documents comply with the law
- whether the fuel was sold above the regulated prices, and
- whether stockpiling was carried out for speculative profit.
Regarding possible hoarding and overpricing, investigators will seek help from the Ang Thong office of the Ministry of Commerce.
Police expect to complete the portion of the investigation under their responsibility within one week. After that, they plan to meet with commerce officials to review the findings.
Pol Col Thanatat said investigators might summon both companies for further questioning before deciding which legal provisions, if any, apply in the case. He said the case should become clearer by next week.
A representative of V.A. Oil Co Ltd met with investigators again on Wednesday and submitted fuel transport documents and tax invoices for March 1–18 to demonstrate the company’s innocence, after questions were raised about the Ang Thong depot.
The company had provided all documents requested by investigators to verify the origin, sale and transport of the fuel in a detailed and transparent manner, said the representative.
Based on the evidence gathered by police, V.A. Oil purchased fuel from storage facilities of the SET-listed refiner IRPC Plc on seven occasions. The oil was required to be delivered to the company’s premises in Bangkok or other destinations as specified in the transport document.
However, investigators found the fuel had instead been delivered to the Ang Thong depot. The documentation for about 330,000 litres of fuel is at issue.
Police have not yet filed any charges, and the latest meeting was intended to provide additional information to counter suspicions of a possible violation of the Fuel Trade Act, which concerns the failure to issue fuel transport documents.
The Ang Thong office of the Ministry of Energy contends that V.A. Oil failed to issue a transport document to Trillion Petro Trading Co Ltd, the operator of the oil depot in the province.
Investigators summoned the latter company to present relevant documents and clarify the fuel’s origin. However, the firm was unable to produce them and claimed only that the fuel had been legally purchased.
The case is being closely watched in light of concerns that hoarding on a large scale — and not just panic buying by individual drivers — is the main cause behind hundreds of service stations running out of fuel.
Diesel consumption in Thailand normally averages 65 million litres a day, but since the Middle East war began to push up oil prices, consumption has risen to between 85 million and 100 million litres per day.
The extent of the hoarding has been beyond the government’s expectations, while the soaring cost of subsidising fuel has forced it to abandon price caps.
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