A Greek tanker owner has had to fend off a second attack by West African pirates in less than two days.
Piracy reporting bodies said the Marshall Islands-flagged 52,000-dwt MR ship Jane (built 2008) was approached by armed men in a single skiff in the early hours of Wednesday.
The incident took place while the tanker was 70 nautical miles (130 km) south east of Cotonou in Benin.
Security consultancy Dryad Global said the raid was later aborted, and the crew has been reported safe.
AIS data now shows the tanker, managed by Product Shipping & Trading, has now docked in Lagos, Nigeria.
The number of perpetrators aboard the skiff is not known. Local authorities have been informed of the incident.
Product Shipping & Trading has not responded to TradeWinds' request for further information.
Second attack
Late on Monday, the company's 73,700-dwt tanker La Boheme (built 2007) was approached by two skiffs, 95 nautical miles (176 km) south of Cotonou.
Seafarers on board the LR1 mustered in the citadel while the master and bridge team carried out evasive moves.
The Jane attack is the sixth reported incident in the Gulf of Guinea within 6 days.
"All vessels operating within the area are encouraged to operate at the highest levels of vigilance and deploy full hardening/mitigation measures where possible," Dryad added.
"The risk profile for the wider Gulf of Guinea region at this time is critical, with attacks assessed as highly likely/expected daily."
Security consultancies had warned over the weekend of a critical threat to shipping in the region.
Desperate men?
After a series of failed kidnapping attempts, they believed the gangs would become desperate and were almost certain to try again quickly.
On Saturday, Torm's 50,000-dwt MR tanker Torm Alexandra (built 2010) was boarded 300 km south of Cotonou while en route from Lome in Togo.
On the same day, the 15,000-dwt Wesley (built 1995), managed by Union Maritime of the UK, was approached while underway 98 km north-west of the Agbami terminal in Nigeria.
A speedboat containing seven armed pirates came to within 250 metres.
Both raids were thwarted by use of the citadel, and in the case of Wesley, armed guards firing warning shots.
