As many as 10 crew have been abducted from a Greek bunker tanker off Nigeria.
The incident occurred on Thursday evening 193 nautical km (106 nautical miles) west of Agbami.
Security sources said the ship involved was the Panama-flagged, 6,200-dwt Vemahope (built 2009).
Operator Queensway Navigation of Greece told TradeWinds the majority of its crew had been kidnapped, including the master. It has not yet established exactly how many.
No deaths or injuries were reported. Families have been informed and the company is committed to resolving the situation, it added.
Security consultancy Ambrey said the tanker had been underway at 10.6 knots from the Lome anchorage in Togo, destined for the Moudi terminal in Cameroon.
Piracy reporting body MDAT-GoG said the pirates used one skiff to reach the ship.
"Within minutes of the attack, the vessel was drifting and has remained in the vicinity," Ambrey said.
Another security consultancy, Dryad Global, named the tanker and said there were an unknown number of assailants involved in the raid.
The nationalities of the crew, or whether any others were left on the vessel, is not yet known.
42 crew in captivity
The kidnappings, if confirmed, bring to 42 the number of seafarers in captivity in West Africa.
The incident took place 39 km north-east of an attack involving a vessel being fired on 20 February.
"Historically incident reporting within this area is significantly less than that of the wider Delta area, principally as a result of less traffic density. However, across 2019 and 2020 there has been a gradual increase in incidents occurring beyond traditional maritime crime heartlands," Dryad said.
The abduction would be the seventh deep offshore incident within the Nigerian EEZ this year.
"Total incidents in West Africa have thus far tracked 2019 trends almost exactly with a partial fall of only one incident seen in 2020 compared to incidents over the same time frame in 2019," Dryad added.
Last month, eight crew were taken from the Maersk-chartered, 4,957-teu boxship Tommi Ritscher (built 2014) off Benin.
