Pirates Hijack Ship With 22 Indian Sailors Near Nigeria

Cliff@sea

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Pirates hijack ship with Indian sailors aboard near Nigeria

New Delhi: Pirates have hijacked an oil tanker with 22 Indian sailors on board in the waters near Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos, the navy and a security company said on Wednesday. The vessel, called the Abu Dhabi Star, was seized on Tuesday night, around 14 nautical miles from the entrance to Lagos port, navy spokesman Kabir Aliyu said, adding that the crew members had hidden in a room on the ship.
Security firm AKE said the boat was Singapore owned. "Reports claim the tanker was laden with fuel and is now sailing into the Gulf of Guinea, which suggests that some or all of its cargo will be offloaded into a waiting vessel and subsequently sold on the region's illegal fuel market," an official at the company said.
Piracy offshore of Nigeria and other countries in West Africa's oil-rich Gulf of Guinea is on the increase, and the region is second only to the waters off Somalia for the risk of pirate attacks, which drives up shipping insurance costs. It nets huge sums for armed gangs from stolen cargo, although unlike their Somali counterparts they rarely ask for ransoms, releasing crew as soon as they've looted the vessel.
A Greek-operated oil tanker seized off Togo at the end of last month was tracked down on Wednesday off the coast of Nigeria under the control of pirates.
AKE said some 3,000 tonnes of gas oil, worth around $3 million at market value, was stolen.
 

Cliff@sea

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Pirates Hijack Ship With 23 Indian Sailors Near Nigeria

An oil tanker with 23 Indian sailors aboard was today hijacked by pirates off the shores of Nigeria, the third such attack in over two weeks in the Gulf of Guinea.

International Maritime Bureau (IMB) officials said the Singapore-owned vessel, MT Abu Dhabi Star, which was carrying fuel, was sailing towards the open sea when it was hijacked.

Twenty three Indian sailors were on board the oil tanker operated by the Dubai-based company, Pioneer Ship Management Services LLC.

Pat Adamson, the company's spokesperson, told PTI that all the crew on the tanker are Indians.

"There was a call from one of the crew members to the management company saying the vessel was boarded by pirates but nobody was harmed," he said.

"Pirates have not yet established contact with the company," Adamsan said, adding "we have not got any report of loot so far."

"We understand that a naval ship is on the way to intercept the vessel," he said.

Earlier IMB said the Nigerian authorities had been notified of the attack and were taking action.

It said the sailors had locked themselves in a safe room to avoid harm by the attackers who are suspected to be oil thieves from Nigeria's Niger Delta region.

Last month, pirates had hijacked and looted two oil tankers off nearby Togo. The ships and all crew members were later freed.

Also, an oil vessel was seized last week by pirates, off the Coast of Togolese capital of Lome and released few days later near Nigeria with its 23 Russian crew members. About 3,000 tonnes of fuel was stolen from the ship.

The Gulf of Guinea has witnessed 37 attacks on ships this year alone.
 

Bheeshma

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Nigeria is buying 4 OPV's from Pipvav. Good idea to use this and explore the possibility of IN-NN cooperation.
 

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Hijack drama off Nigerian coast ends; all Indian sailors safe

All the 23 Indian sailors, whose oil tanker was taken over by suspected pirates off the Nigerian coast, have been released along with their vessel after the intervention of the Nigerian Navy, a top Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) official said late this evening.

A Nigerian Navy vessel intercepted the Singapore-owned oil tanker `Abu Dhabi Star', taken over by the pirates in the Gulf of Guinea. The naval officials went on-board the ship which resulted in the end of the crisis, he told PTI here.

"The pirates probably deserted the ship after looking at the naval vessel," the official said, adding till now, there is no information of arrest or detaining of the pirates.

The hijacking lasted for less than 24 hrs and entire crew is safe, the official said, adding the DGS came to know about the release earlier during the day.
The ship's crew had locked themselves up in the high security area of the vessel called 'citadel', he said.

The DGS official said the hijacking was probably done for taking over the cargo (fuel) onboard and not for ransom as is observed in multitudes of similar instances off the Somali coast.

The cargo of the vessel is also safe as the pirates require the help of ship crew to unload it, the official said.

Earlier, the DGS - which is responsible for the safety of the Indian sailors - got in touch with the Nigerian authorities after coming to know of the hijacking, following which the navy swung into action, the official said.

An earlier report from Nigeria said the attackers are suspected to be oil thieves from the Niger Delta region of the north-west African nation.

This was third such attack in the area in over two weeks.

Abu Dhabi Star was anchored 80 km off the Nigerian coast, at that country's biggest port Lagos, when it was hijacked, according to a spokesman for Nigerian Navy.
 

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