The Nigerian Navy on Wednesday confirmed that an oil super tanker, MV HEROIC IDUN, with three million barrels of crude oil from Nigeria has been intercepted in Equatorial Guinea.
It said that the ship was seized by Equatorial Guinea Navy after the 300,000 metric tonnes facility escaped from its forces.
The vessel, with International Maritime Organisation (IMO) number 9858058, was arrested with the help of intelligence supplied to that country by the Nigerian Navy (NN). The Nigerian Navy Ship, (NNS) GONGOLA, had interrogated the ship, which has capacity to lift about three million barrels of crude oil, when it was first seen around the AKPO Deep off-shore oil field operated by a multinational firm, at midnight on August 7.
The vessel was seen through the NN’s Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) facility, and its actions were suspicious which prompted NNS GONGOLA to establish communication and interrogate the vessel. Upon interrogation, it was discovered that the ship, alleged to have come into the country’s waters to load products neither had the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Ltd.’s loading permit, nor valid documents to be in the country’s waters.
Having established that the said vessel was up to no good in the area it was located, the Marshall Island, flagged the ship, with a 26-member crew comprising 16 Indians, eight Srilankans, a Polish and one Filipino, and was asked to proceed to Bonny Fairway, in Rivers State, for further interrogation and Vessel Boarding Search and Seizure (VBSS), but it increased its speed and changed its direction facing Sao Tome and Principe.
