Malaysian authorities have arrested ten pirates and are hunting for three more after they were caught attempting to hijack a product tanker.
The pirates attacked the 1,980-dwt MGT 1 (built 1991) on Wednesday evening and forced the crew to transfer 1m litres of diesel oil out of 2.2m litres aboard the vessel to a mother ship.
However, the tanker’s crew managed to activate the SSAS alarm and the Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) dispatched two assets to the site and made the arrests.
The tanker was underway from Rayong when two speedboats came alongside some 54 nm west of Kuala Dungan, Kuala Terengganu, West Malaysia and the armed perpetrators boarded the vessel.
Details of the incident come in an alert from the Singapore-based Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) Information Sharing Centre.
“The rapid apprehension of the perpetrators and successful rescue of the crew and vessel within hours from reporting is a testament to the effectiveness of timely reporting by the ship and effective enforcement by the relevant authorities,” said ReCAAP executive director Masafumi Kuroki.
The Thai-flagged tanker is now reported to be being escorted to Kuala Terengganu for further investigation.
ReCAAP said this is the second incident reported in Asia this year involving the theft of an oil cargo from a vessel.
The last incident was the hijack of the product tanker CP 41 for oil cargo theft that occurred on 23 June 2017 about 25 nm east of Kuantan, West Malaysia.
