Missing since Friday; search continues for Indian ship and crew

Travelling by sea is not always a simple and easy journey as it seems. One has to take into consideration the weather and, of course, pirates. 

A ship carrying 22 Indian crew and 13,500 tons of gasoline is missing in the Gulf of Guinea after contact was lost in Benin on Friday, the company and India’s minister of external affairs said on Sunday.

The Gulf of Guinea has become an increasing target for pirates who steal cargo and demand ransoms, even as piracy incidents fall worldwide, experts say.

The Marine Express tanker, managed by Hong Kong-based Anglo-Eastern, was last seen in Benin’s waters at 3:30 a.m. GMT on Friday after which contact was lost, an Anglo Eastern spokesman told an international news agency.

The cause of the loss of communication was unknown and a search was underway, conducted with help from Nigerian and Beninese authorities, Anglo-Eastern said.

“We regret that contact has been lost with the vessel, which was the Cotonou Anchorage in Benin, West Africa,” the spokesman said.

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India’s minister of external affairs Sushma Swaraj said on Twitter that 22 Indian nationals were onboard.

The ship was carrying $8.1 million dollars (€ 6.4 million) worth of gasoline when it disappeared on Thursday. Fears are held for the crew of 22 Indian nationals amid speculation the tanker has been hijacked by pirates.

According to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, the oil tanker, “Marine Express,” went missing off the Benin coast in the Gulf of Guinea on February 1. The tanker is owned by the Anglo-Eastern shipping company, which is based in Hong Kong. The company tweeted that its top priority is the safety of the crew.

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India’s Directorate General of Shipping was in contact with authorities in Nigeria and Benin Sunday in efforts to determine the whereabouts of the tanker and crew. This was confirmed by India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, Raveesh Kumar, who tweeted that a 24-hour hotline had been set up by the Indian embassy in Nigeria to provide information on those missing.

Local media reports say it is the second ship to go missing in this area in the last month. The “MT Barret” was hijacked by pirates in January, but the crew, mostly Indians, was released six days later after a ransom was paid, it was reported by the Indian daily.

Nigerian authorities have requested all vessels to report any sightings of the missing tanker to the International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) Anti-Piracy Reporting Centre in London.

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PIRATE THREATS ON SEA

Piracy-related issues were a decade ago focused on the east African coast, particularly Somalia’s unpoliced waters. But the Gulf of Guinea threat has increased.

Ships in the area were the target of a series of piracy-related incidents last year, according to a January report by the IMB, which highlighted the waters off West Africa as an area of growing concern.

There were ten incidents of kidnapping involving 65 crew members in or around Nigerian waters, the IMB said. Globally 16 vessels reported being fired upon, seven of which were in the Gulf of Guinea.

On January 10 a company lost communication with its tanker anchored in Cotonou, according to the IMB. After a six-day search, the tanker and crew were found safely in Lagos after the tanker owner negotiated with the hijackers, IMB said.