INTERNATIONAL: Singapore-based oil and gas exploration company, KrisEnergy Ltd., has allegedly smuggled 290,000 barrels of Cambodian crude oil to Thailand. Director General of Petroleum in the Ministry of Mines and Energy, Chiep Sour, has confirmed that a creditor of KrisEnergy was behind the smuggling. Cambodia has completely suspended crude oil production in the Gulf of Thailand following KrisEnergy’s bankruptcy declaration in June.

During Prime Minister Hun Sen’s address at the launch of child vaccinations on Sunday, he said that the first oil pumping operation in Cambodia has failed. He told the media at the Peace Palace that, “We plan to pump 5,700 barrels of oil per day. However, in the end, only 1,000 barrels per day. Now the company is bankrupt. Plus, the ship that has the oil ran away. It is already in Thailand. The Thai has lawyer already. Now it takes all the oil away. The oil is gone!”

Sour has also reported that before KrisEnergy declared bankruptcy, it pumped 290,000 barrels of oil from Block A and stored it on a ship that has now docked in Thailand. He says the government has filed a claim for the oil but the owner of the ship has asserted that KrisEnergy owes him money.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy is currently preparing legal proceedings against KrisEnergy. As of now, no other oil company has expressed an interest in pumping oil in Cambodia. Sour has reported that the kingdom still has many oil blocks, saying “The Cambodian mainland has about 20 blocks of oil which must be explored.”