The following compiled analysis was issued by Dryad Maritime from Friday 12 – 22 February . The report illustrates the uncertainty surrounding maritime security issues in the region in 2016; coming fast on the release of Dryad’s annual crime statistics which had shown a lull in attacks offshore West Africa.

 

On the late evening of Thursday 11 February, around 70NM South of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, the International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Centre received information that around six pirates had attacked a tanker underway.

The product tanker, later identified as MT Maximus, was released from pirate control late on Friday 19 February in an area nearly 300 NM south of Lagos. Nigerian naval vessels NNS Okpabana and NNS Sagbama had tracked the movements of the tanker, along with MT Dejikin, which had been used as the offload tanker onto which the cargo of oil had been transferred.

During the operation to free MT Maximus’ crew, one pirate was shot and killed. Whilst the majority of the rest of the gang were detained, it is believed that some escaped, possibly on the pirate mother vessel, with two Maximus crew members as hostages. MT Maximus has since been escorted to Lagos port pending further investigations.

This incident was the first of its nature within the Gulf of Guinea since a small tanker, MT Mariam, was taken in January 2015 offshore Warri, Nigeria. The hijacking of MT Maximus followed the historical trend whereby Nigerian based gangs would hijack product tankers far from Nigerian waters. The tankers were then taken under duress to the Nigerian EEZ where the cargo of oil was offloaded onto illegal oil tankers before the ships were released by the hijackers.

Despite the fall in the frequency of hijackings in the region, this latest hijack highlights the continued threat that exists to product tankers. Dryad reiterates that the gang responsible for this attack are a separate group to the Pirate Action Group (PAG) that has been operating off the Niger Delta during the early weeks of 2016. That gang remains unaccounted for, and are likely to conduct further attacks against a range of commercial vessels with the intent to kidnap of crew for ransom, and not hijack of tankers for their cargo of oil.

The actions of the Nigerian Navy (NN) in resolving the hijacking of MT Maximus are commendable. Despite this, Dryad remain concerned that the West African navies are unable to deter attacks occurring outside of their nations territorial waters, and that further raids against shipping outside of the 12 NM limit are likely to continue across the region and off Nigeria in particular.

The above report was issued as part of Dryad Maritime’s continued incident alerts and advisories service. Containing timely alerts, updates and vital recommendations, the service is aimed at raising awareness and mitigating the associated risks of trading in various high risk areas.

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