On September 6, a product tanker reportedly got involved in a pirate attack which was thwarted.
What happened?
The Thailand flagged product tanker ‘MGT 1’ was attacked by attacked by pirates. The tanker was underway from Rayong port, Thailand to Andaman sea where the incident took place at 54 nm east of Kuala Dungun, Kuala Terengganu, West Malaysia.
13 armed pirates threaten crew:
The 13 armed pirates approached the tanker on 2 speed boats and forced the crew to transfer one million litres of diesel oil (out of 2.2 million litres contained in the tanker) to a mother ship. The crew managed to activate the SSAS alarm and the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) dispatched two ships and a helicopter to the location and rescued the tanker.
Pirates arrested:
The officials raided the ship and detained 10 pirates while search is ongoing for remaining 3 pirates. The tanker is now being escorted to Kuala Terengganu for further investigation.
Second incident reported:
This is the second incident involving theft of oil cargo reported in Asia in 2017. The last incident was the hijack of product tanker C.P. 41 for oil cargo theft that occurred on 23 June 2017 approximately 25 nm east of Kuantan, West Malaysia.
Tankers advised to enhance precaution measures:
The ReCAAP ISC is concerned about the recurrence of incidents of hijacking of ship for theft of oil cargo. Ships carrying oil cargo are encouraged to exercise vigilance and adopt precautionary measures taking reference from the ‘Regional Guide to Counter Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia’.
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Source: ReCAAP
