An oil tanker laden with 3,500 tonnes of crude marine fuel oil which was reported missing Saturday night while sailing from Tanjung Pinang, Indonesia to Langkawi was found yesterday – minus the cargo.
Advertisement
A Singapore-registered tanker has been found off Malaysia after it was reportedly hijacked on Saturday (Aug 8).
MMEA deputy-director general (operations) Maritime Vice-Admiral Datuk Ahmad Puzi Ab Kahar estimated the missing cargo to be worth of RM1.2 million.
The pirates released the ship and crew at 8.55am about 14 nautical miles east of Pulau Rapat, Indonesia. The nine crew members, one Singaporean and eight Indonesians, have all been accounted for, MPA added. The crew was safe except for the master and bunker crew who were injured after being punched by the perpetrators.
Ahmad Puzi believes a “phantom ship” was involved in the incident and there was also a possibility that an “insider” was involved as the tanker had been heading north before changing course to a southern direction. “The ship needs to be fixed. At the moment the owners are still trying to get clearance from the Indonesian authority to allow it to remain there until the ship is fixed”.
Ahmad Puzi said this is the first robbery reported since 2014 in the Malaysian waters at the Straits of Malacca.
Advertisement
The Kuala Lumpur-based global Maritime Bureau piracy monitoring centre said 92 incidents of piracy attacks have been recorded in South-East Asian waters from January to June, the most of any region around the world.
