PUTRAJAYA: The 200 million litres of diesel currently headed to Australia did not originate from Malaysia’s own reserves, says the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
According to the PMO, the fuel in question belonged to an international company that uses Malaysia as a storage hub.
“This is similar to the previous situation involving the Philippines. It is not Malaysian diesel, but belongs to an international company that bought diesel from other countries and then stored it in Malaysia.
The PMO said the fuel was being sold to Australia through a commercial contract between Viva Energy and BP (British Petroleum) Australia.
“It was mentioned ‘from Malaysia’ because the ship collected fuel that is stored here.
“The diesel was not extracted from Malaysian soil,” the PMO added.
The PMO also reiterated that the government and PETRONAS are not selling off the country’s fuel supplies, a stance previously emphasised by the Prime Minister.
On Wednesday (April 22), Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was quoted as saying that an extra 200 million litres of diesel was headed for Australia.
He said it consisted of two cargoes from South Korea, one from Brunei and another from Malaysia.
Australian Energy Minister Chris Bowen had said the extra fuel would arrive in Australia by the last week of May or the first week of June.
Malaysian Government spokesman Datuk Fahmi Fadzil have also said the fuel headed to Australia did not originate from Malaysia and it belonged to BP, which operates a storage facility in Malaysian waters.
