Greek Tanker Hijacked Off Nigeria; Third Hijacking in 7 Days
UPDATED: The Greek-owned tanker, MT Halifax, has failed to report its position off Nigeria over the last few days. Having lost communications with the ship, the vessel has since been reported as being hijacked.
This is the third vessel hijack within 7days. The other hijacks were off Somalia and Malaysia (since rescued by Malaysian Navy).
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| Suspected missing tanker, MT Halifax (Photo courtesy of MarineTraffic.com) |
The Malta-flagged and Greek-owned tanker, Halifax, and its crew of 25 (24 Filipinos and one Bulgarian) were last known to have been instructed to a safe drifting area by local agents of Nigeria in preparation for further berthing instructions in Port Harcourt, before finally berthing a buoy at the oil terminal of Bonny on October 29.
The vessel, built in 1992 with DWT 29753, operated by Ancora Investment Trust, Glyfada, Greece, had loaded a cargo of unleaded gasoline at Offshore Lome, Togo via STS operation with the MT SC Pacifica on October 22. It then proceeded to Offshore Bonny and Port Harcourt where she arrived at 2000 local time on October 25 to await further berthing instructions.
On October 26 at 0745 local time, she received instructions from local agents to proceed to a safe drifting area. On October 29, the vessel was last reported to be drifting Offshore Bonny in position 03:26.5N - 06:42.3E awaiting berthing instructions.
The vessel was scheduled to berth at Port Harcourt November 1 and to then move to Bonny fairway buoy by 0700 local time on the same day, says a maritime source.
The last known position of the Halifax was 03:47.56N - 003:04.96E at 1109 local time.
It was stated that the owner was unable to communicate with the vessel and fears that "an unknown unlawful intervention has taken place.“
It has since been confirmed that a hijack has taken place and was also stated in a headline by Associated Press states that pirates have seized a tanker off Nigeria and have kidnapped the crew, according to a private security source.
The hijack is amongst two others that occurred off Somalia and off Malaysia within 7 days. The Greek-owned Liquid Velvet, was hijacked October 31 (OCEANUSLive report), and the Malaysia-flagged Nautica Johor Bahru, was hijacked October 25. It was intercepted by the Malaysian Navy and saw the pirates escape with everything of value, except the cargo. The vessel had a cargo of oil and gas said to be worth US$4.5 million.
Pirate activity in the Gulf of Guinea has increased sharply since last year. A surge in activity off Benin has led to the hijacking of eight tankers in the period from only 19 attacks, the IMB says.
Kidnappings are relatively common in the onshore oil-producing Niger Delta but since an amnesty was agreed with militants in 2009 and the military have cracked down on gangs in the creeks, more attacks have spread offshore.
MT Cape Bird, with an East European crew of 20, was recently hijacked but were released after five days.
The attacks are part of a growing trend to target oil shipments moving out of Nigeria in the region. Analysts say some of the targeted ships carry crude stolen from Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, where thefts run into the hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day.
OCEANUSLive.org
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