The 300,000 dead weight tonnage (dwt) carrier got into a dispute with Nigerian authorities last week and was chased down and detained by the navy in neighbouring Equitorial Guinea.
A very large crude carrier (VLCC) has been detained by the navy in Equitorial Guinea after it got into a dispute with Nigerian authorities.
The 300,000 dead weight tonnage (dwt) carrier got into a dispute with Nigerian authorities last week and was chased down and detained by the navy in neighbouring Equitorial Guinea.
It was subsequently detained by Equitorial Guinea.
According to Maritime Executive, reports from the counties say Equatorial Guinea arrested the vessel contending that it illegally entered its water without permission as it sought to evade the Nigerian forces.
The VLCC, which was built in 2020, is named Heroic Idun. According to the AIS signal, she remains anchored at the port of Luba, which is used mostly as a logging port on the island Bioko in the Gulf of Guinea.
She has a crew of 26 aboard, comprising 16 Indians, eight Sri Lankans, one Pole, and one Filipino, and is being held while the matter is being investigated.
Teodoro Nguema, Vice President of Equatorial Guinea confirmed on his Twitter account that the country's authorities detained the large crude carrier named Heroic Idun.
“Equatorial Guinea is still investigating the tanker detained last week in Annobon following a tip-off from Nigeria. So far, the tanker has incurred two serious offences; first, entering our waters without prior authorization and second, navigating without an identifying flag," Nguema wrote.
The local media is reporting that Heroic Idun, registered in the Marshall Islands, was seen near the AKPO oil field, off the Nigerian coast, on August 7.
The Nigerian Navy’s Maritime Domain Awareness facility was the first to detect the vessel and it reported the vessel for suspicious activity, saying that they did not believe the vessel had permits from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), nor other valid documents to be at the offshore field. Despite that, they believed the vessel was loading oil.
After the tanker departed the terminal, the Nigerian Navy ship Gongola tried to establish communication with the tanker. They were attempting to question the vessel on its activity and inspect its papers.
Media reports say the tanker resisted the contact and at one point issued a warning of an attempted boarding that was recorded by the International Maritime Bureau. The media is calling the report a false alarm but says that when the vessel was ordered to proceed to Bonny Fairway for further interrogation, it instead increased its speed and changed its direction toward Sao Tome and Principe.
The Nigerian forces requested the assistance of neighbouring Equatorial Guinea in the pursuit of the crude oil tanker. Nguema reports that the vessel was stopped on the afternoon of August 12 and ordered to sail to Equatorial Guinea.
Timipre Sylva, Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, recently estimated that every day, over 400,000 barrels of crude are stolen in Nigeria.
According to him, oil theft is already a national emergency,
Sylva noted that massive crude oil theft is affecting Nigeria's ability to meet OPEC's daily quota.
Sylva is the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources while President Muhammadu Buhari is the senior petroleum resources minister.
The country's export allocation fell from 1.8 million barrels to 1.4 million barrels, a loss the minister said could cripple Nigeria’s economy.
"This is because the thefts are occurring in communities that host the oil pipelines," Sylva recently told Imo governor, Hope Uzodinma. "As a result, it has become necessary to engage stakeholders, particularly host communities."