The jakarta Globe, December 15, 2012
Denpasar. Police in Bali have seized hundreds of gas canisters from an illegal siphoning racket at a distribution center in Jimbaran, identical to an outlet where similar operations led to a massive explosion that left 17 people hospitalized back in February.
Adj. Sr. Comr. Tri Kuncoro, an officer with the Bali Police’s special crimes unit, said on Friday that the raid was carried out on Thursday and resulted in the arrest of one suspect, identified as I.G.S., 33.
“We seized several hundred canisters of the three-kilogram and 50-kilogram varieties,” he said.
He added that the distribution center workers were believed to have been siphoning liquefied petroleum gas from the smaller canisters, whose price is subsidized by the government, into the larger canisters, which are meant for industrial consumers at nonsubsidized prices.
Tri said police found 560 of the three-kilo canisters, 30 of which were empty, with the gas believed to have been siphoned into the 50-kilo canisters. There were a total of 20 of the larger canisters.
Police also seized eight pipes specially rigged with valves, which are typically used in the transferring the pressurized contents of one gas canister to another.
The raid on the distribution center, which was found not to have a permit to store or sell LPG canisters, came after residents in the neighborhood complained about the constant smell of leaking gas emanating from the building.
Tri said that I.G.S. admitted to running an illegal siphoning racket, but that he had only been at it for a month. He faces theft charges under the 2001 Oil and Gas Law that carry a maximum sentence of three years.
The illegal operation was identical to one being run in Denpasar earlier this year before it was destroyed by a massive explosion.
The explosion at the distribution outlet on Jalan Pulau Roti occurred on Feb. 17. A total of 17 people, most of them workers who were loading canisters into a pickup truck at the time, were injured, nine of them seriously.
The accident was the latest in a series of explosions dating back to the introduction of the subsidized LPG canisters in 2010. Many of the explosions were believed to have been caused by faulty regulators and containers, as well as negligence.
zo 16 dec 2012 - 1:55