Amahlo-Suritec‘s September 2017 Piracy Report #piracy #maritime #security #marsec

July 2017 - Piracy Report

Analysis

• Nigeria, the Strait of Malacca and the Philippines are currently the areas with the highest geographical concentration of incidents of piracy and robbery of vessels . Venezuela also recorded high incidents in 2017 .

• The Thai flagged Product Tanker, MGT 1 was hijacked on 6 September 2017 approximately 54nm east of Kuala Dungun, Malaysia . The Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) arrested eleven suspects in connection with the incident .

• The hijacking of the MGT 1 had several similarities to the hijacking of the C . P .41 in June 2017 . The two incidents took place 70nm apart . Both vessels are small Thai flagged product tankers approximately 100 m in length . Both had diesel oil onboard . Both attacks were launched at night by assailants speaking in Indonesian Bahasa .

• Another Thai tanker, Senna 3 was also boarded and robbed while underway SSE of Pulau Aur, Malaysia in September 2017 . Crews should remain vigilant in this area and implement security measures . Pirates have good knowledge and accessibility to information in the oil industry and companies should do their own risk assessment in this regard .

• 55 crew members and passengers of vessels were kidnapped on the coast of Nigeria during nine reported incidents from January to end of September 2017 . Seven crew members and security personnel were kidnapped during two incidents in Nigeria in September 2017 .

• Up to date no prosecutions against criminals involved with hijackings of commercial ships or kidnapping of crew of commercial vessels were recorded in Nigeria . This, as well as high militancy levels are some of the contributing factors in the occurrence of maritime crime against commercial ships in Nigeria .

• The socio -economic and political crisis in Venezuela is effecting maritime security . Eleven incidents of robbery and attempted robbery on tankers and cargo vessels were reported at Puerto La Cruz anchorages in Venezuela from January to end of September 2017 . Four incidents were reported in September 2017.

Full report is available to download here: