Interior Ministry comments on crimes in fuel sector

Some 10m tons of oil are stolen annually in Russia, Boris Gavrilov, deputyhead of the investigation committee of the Interior Ministry, declared at abriefing today. According to him, some 3,300 crimes were registered in theoil and oil product sectors that caused losses amounting to more than 270mrubles ($8.57m).The official pointed out that the level of technical equipment of criminalsin this sphere was high. Organized crime is interested in establishingcontrol over oil production, transportation and processing due to theirhigh profitability.This year agencies of the Russian Interior Ministry have carried out anumber of large-scale operations 'Neft' (Oil) to prevent crimes in the fueland energy complex. During these operations about 17,000 kilometers of oilpipelines were examined and 1,300 crimes were registered. The policerevealed and stopped the activity of 39 organized crime groups, including12 groups that were specialized in oil theft from pipelines. As a result ofthe operations more than 1,300 tons of oil, 1,200 tons of oil products andmore than 3,500 vehicles including 586 gasoline tank trucks were seized. .