Suspect pirate mother vessel sighted off Nigeria

Dryad Global said the sighting of the potential pirate mothership towing a speedboat was 100 nm southeast of Agbami Oil Terminal.

The location is 60nm northwest from a kidnapping incident that occurred on the 3 February this year and 53nm east from another kidnapping incident on the 15 July this year.

“The sighting also sits 100nm west of the main concentration of MARSEC incidents within the Nigerian EEZ within 2019,” Dryad said.

“As yet the vessel is unconfirmed as a mother-ship vessel, however the towing of a speedboat is a significant sign of potential involvement in hostile behavior and as such all vessels in this location should proceed with extreme caution.”

This month has seen kidnapping incidents off West Africa with 20 seafarers taken from the tanker Duke off Togo and 19 crew from the VLCC Nave deep offshore Nigeria.

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