Leaving On A Jet Plane

Episode #169: Today’s discussion looks at the Burmese military’s on-going, devastating airstrikes from a slightly different angle: What helps the jets get in the sir? Amnesty International’s Montse Ferrer joins us to explain the process of how jet fuel gets into the country.

Myanmar does not have the technology to refine crude oil into international grade aviation fuel, so the military needs to import it. It uses a grade of fuel that is typically meant for commercial aviation so it can be freely traded. Ferrer and her colleagues tracked every shipment of jet fuel that has arrived following the coup, and found that all of them arrived at the Thilawa Port in Than Lyin outside of Yangon, in a process that might involve 20 different oil companies in a single shipment, and with insurance and ship ownership factored in, involving as many as 100 entities overall.

Out of all these players, Trafigura, one of the world’s largest independent oil and petroleum products traders, is the major figure. They benefited from an exclusive contract some years ago to build up Myanmar’s ports infrastructure, including Thilawa. The fuel is transported from the port by one of Trafigura’s affiliates…which is linked to the military regime.

Cutting off Myanmar’s fuel imports would cripple the country’s non-military air traffic. For their part, energy company executives claim they are selling their product legally, and have no prior knowledge of, and certainly no control over, the military’s decisions about using the fuel. However, Ferrer believes that oil company executives probably do know what is happening, at least to some degree. But suspecting something to be true and proving it in a court of law are two different things. Sanctions are also always a discussion point, but need to be evaluated very carefully by the international community as to their possible “unintended consequences.”

Ferrer does note that, amazingly, most of the companies named in their recent report have not taken part in further shipments of jet fuel to Myanmar. Yet she can’t conclusively affirm that any less jet fuel is entering the country, either. And given the large stockpiles of fuel that the military likely has access to, one can’t even speculate that their ability to launch airstrikes has decreased in any appreciable way.