Diesel smugglers in the Kingdom continue to rake in the moolah taking advantage of the government subsidy on the fuel with 10,000 liters on average crossing the Saudi borders every day.

This despite the all out efforts by authorities to rein in diesel smuggling evident from the fact that 8 million liters of the fuel had been seized by Saudi Customs in 2013. The destination is invariably the northern areas of the UAE because of the huge cost differential.

Compare this — a liter of diesel costs just 25 halalas per liter while it costs over SR3.70 in the UAE! A tanker of diesel, which costs SR8,000 in the Kingdom, fetches SR100,000 when it crosses over to the UAE, a neat profit of SR92,000 minus of course the transportation cost and risk factor.

Eissa Al-Qudaibi, spokesman of Saudi Customs, told Arab News: “Diesel seizures went up by 169 percent in 2013 as compared to 2012, when three million liters were confiscated.” He said: “Saudi customs has been successful in foiling attempts of smuggling of diesel from the Kingdom,” adding that several measures had been introduced at Al Bat’ha border checkpoint near Al-Ahsa, the largest in the Kingdom. The measures included collection of samples from tankers that transport bulk oil substance.

He said that Customs authorities were using state-of-the- art technology to check outgoing trucks and tankers with petroleum products.

There are two type of smuggling of diesel — one involving additional storage capacity of fuel tank exclusively plying in Saudi Arabia and the other transportation of hydraulic or used oil through tankers from the eastern province in the Kingdom.

The situation is complicated since the two countries have opened legal channels for import and export of certain industrial oil products that are offshore products of diesel.

According to experts, traders are taking advantage of this and indulging in smuggling under the pretext of trading in such permitted oil products.

Besides Asian expats, some Saudis are also involved in this crime. Their modus operandi being that once the tanker reaches the UAE soil, the diesel is separated from mixed oil using technology and then sold at higher prices, sources said.

Abdullah Saeed Al-Mobty, chairman of the Saudi Chamber of Commerce, believes that the low price of petroleum products in the Kingdom has led to the spurt in smuggling of diesel. About 30 percent of the diesel production in the Kingdom was being smuggled out, he said.

Earlier, reports had suggested that diesel was also being smuggled to European countries from the Yanbu port in vessels.

In Jeddah too, similar attempts were foiled by authorities with Saudi Customs seizing four million liters of diesel in a single case at Jeddah Islamic Port last year.