A gang of pirates terrorising Nigeria’s maritime space has attacked Nigeria Liquefied  Natural Gas (LNG), Lokoja vessel, hours before the New Year day.
This was contained in a statement by Dryad Global, a renowned maritime security expert, yesterday.
The statement said a single speedboat approached the LNG carrier with 10 armed men, who opened fire at the vessel.
“The LNG Lokoja carried out evasive manoeuvres and escaped, going on to meet up with Nigerian and Portuguese naval vessels.”  Dryyad said
The statement said the LNG Lokoja vessel was on its way to the Nigeria LNG facility, at Bonny in Rivers State, when it was attacked by the sea robbers.
According to the marine traffics report, the vessel is now on its way to Enagas’ Huelva terminal in Spain,.
The Dryad report said the attack took place 65 nautical miles (120 km) northwest of Sao Tome.
According to the report, the attack was the eighth of such incidents beyond the Eastern fringe of Nigeria’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in 2019. A subsequent attack, on the Vinalines Mighty bulk carrier on December 30, was the ninth, as there were only four such attacks in the previous two years.
The attacks on the LNG Lokoja occurred 13 nautical miles (24 km) from a similar incident on November 7, last year.
Dryad said this was “further confirmation of a developing trend of incidents that are assessed to be perpetuated by a well-resourced pirate action group, most likely operating from one or more mother-ship vessels”.
“The pirates are aware of shortfalls in security in the area”.
Dryad noted reports of a mother-ship on December 19, towing a speedboat, 70 nautical miles (129 km) from an attack on the Istanbul oil tanker, on December 24.
While attacks have increased in the east of Nigeria’s EEZ, they have reduced in the west of the Brass and Agbami terminals.
It will be recalled that seven crew members from Swire Pacific Offshore (SPO) were released recently. The crew of the Pacific Warden had been seized while working offshore Equatorial Guinea as they had been held in captivity for 31 days.