Piracy reporting bodies have confirmed that a bunker tanker that lost contact with its owner on Monday has been hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea.
The last known position of the 400-dwt Stelios K (built 1995) was 40 nautical miles (74 km) south of Lome in Togo on Monday morning.
The ship was boarded while on route to Lagos in Nigeria.
Authorities in the region had been seeking to establish the current location and make contact with the crew.
On Wednesday, piracy reporting body Maritime Domain Awareness for Trade — Gulf of Guinea (MDAT-GoG) received confirmation that the attackers were still on board.
Local authorities have been informed and negotiations were ongoing to secure the release of vessel and crew, according to security consultancy Dryad Global.
The seafarers are said to be safe.
Slowed to a stop
AIS tracking shows the tanker took two sharp turns off its course and slowed from 6.6 knots to a stop, before the signal ceased.
"The vessel is understood to be remaining in position from where it lost contact, having still not appeared on AIS," Dryad added.
The occupation of the tanker, rather than the immediate abduction of crew, could indicate the criminal gang sought to either offload or sell the fuel on board.
The ship is owned by Royal Shipmanagement of the Marshall Islands, which could not be contacted.
This is only the second hijacking in the Gulf of Guinea in 2020, as pirates focus more on kidnappings for ransom.
Rare incident
Dryad said these incidents remain rare due to both their complexity and the high risk of capture by maritime security forces.
The last known hijacking occurred on 15 May when the fishing vessel Hailufeng 11 lost contact and disappeared from satellite tracking.
The vessel was later intercepted by Nigerian special forces and the pirates detained.
There have been 10 piracy incidents already in November in the region, however.
Five crew members were kidnapped in the Gulf of Guinea on Monday from the 1,700-dwt general cargoship AM Delta (built 1992) off Nigeria.
And three days before that, a gang kidnapped 14 Chinese crew members from a heavylift vessel. The 48,127-dwt Liberian-flagged Zhen Hua 7 (built 1998) was raided northwest of Sao Tome.
