A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker successfully outran pirates that approached the vessel in a speedboat off the coast of Somalia on Friday, maritime security sources said, adding to worries of a resurgence of piracy after years of calm.
A recent spate of armed attacks on vessels in the region - including the first involving suspected Somali pirates in a year - has reignited concerns over the security of shipping lanes used to transport critical energy and goods to global markets.
Friday’s incident occurred close to the site of an attack a day earlier targetting the Malta-flagged products tanker Hellas Aphrodite, an official with maritime security firm Diaplous said.
The Marshall Islands-flagged LNG tanker, which maritime security sources identified as Al Thumama, reported an approach by a small craft with three people onboard, British maritime risk management group Vanguard and maritime security sources said.
The master reported that the tanker, which was en route from Ras Laffan, Qatar, to Swinoujscie, Poland via the Cape of Good Hope, outran the speedboat, the sources said. The vessel’s operator, Japan’s NYK LNG Shipmanagement, could not immediately be reached for comment.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou, Jonathan Saul, Yannis Souliotis and Alexander Winning; Editing by Joe Bavier)