Italian private security company Praesidium International issued a security update stating that the tanker was reported as boarded by an unknown number of people around 300 nm south of Abidjan, a coastal city in in Côte d’Ivoire.
The incident was noted as ongoing at the time of the security update.
The vessel is a regular to the area, mostly likely involved in bunkering operations, and could be the target of an attempted oil theft.
“Success 9 was proceeding NW, likely repositioning herself, when her speed started dropping at around 0600 UTC. She then started drifting and was heading NW when at 1425 the AIS transmission was lost, possibly indicating the time the perpetrators took control of the vessel,” said the Praesidium update.
The report speculated that Nigerian pirate activity groups (PAG) may have pushed to targeted intel-based offshore operations after encountering difficulties on land over the past year.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited.
Add Seatrade Maritime News to your Google News feed.  |
