Thread: Petroleum Tanker Goes Missing in Malaysian Waters

A file photo shows the Malaysian oil tanker MT Oriental Glory. A different tanker has gone missing in
Malaysian waters, a senior official said Sunday. (EPA/Malaysian Royal Navy)

Khaosod English / DPA
June 14, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR - A tanker carrying 6,000 metric tons of high-grade petrol has gone missing in Malaysian waters, a senior official said Sunday.

The vessel went missing Thursday while sailing off Tanjung Sedili town in the state of Johor, about 300 kilometres south of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency first admiral Ibrahim Mohamed said.

He said search teams were looking for the vessel and 22 crew that had been en route from the state of Malacca to Pahang state, and has 22 crew members on board.

Earlier this month, armed pirates hijacked a tanker in eastern Malaysia, siphoned off oil and robbed the crew before fleeing, according to the International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Centre.

The Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Centre said one tanker is hijacked by pirates in South-East Asian waters every two weeks, adding that the region accounted for 55 per cent of global piracy incidents in the first quarter of 2015.

Petroleum Tanker Goes Missing in Malaysian Waters

A Kra Canal may not help in this case, since the tanker was en route from Malacca to another state around the southern tip of the peninsula.

Thai PBS News
June 16, 2015

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has confirmed that the missing cargo ship MT Orkim Harmony had most likely been hijacked by sea robbers, New Straits Times reported.

MMEA’s deputy director-general Datuk Ahmad Puzi Ab Kahar said the lack of signs of wreckage have indicated that it did not sink.

Also, MMEA believed that the lack of distress calls showed that the communications equipment and other tracking devices were deliberately switched off.

Puzi said in a press conference on Monday that the search was focused in the South China Sea from Johor to Kelantan. Malaysia’s borders in Sabaht and Sarawak as well as the Strait of Malacca have been opened for neighbouring countries to help conduct the search.

Apart from informing their counterparts such as Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia and the United States, the MMEA is also now seeking clearance to enter Indonesian waters.

The tanker was out of contact while it was some 31.5km (17 nautical miles) off Pulau Aur since 8.54pm last Thursday.

MT Orkim Harmony was sailing from Malacca to Kuantan when it disappeared. The MMEA received a report from the shipping company about the missing tanker at 6.30am last Friday.

Missing tanker most likely hijacked, says MMEA - Thai PBS English News

Thai PBS News / Bernama
June 19, 2015

The hijackers of oil tanker MT Orkim Harmony have reportedly changed course to the east heading for Natuna Island, Indonesia, in an attempt to escape, according to Malaysian national news agency BERNAMA.

Rear Admiral Datuk Azhari Abdul Rashid, commander of Marine Region 1, Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN), said the hijackers also asked the authorities to provide a boat when they reach Natuna Island.

It was earlier reported that the oil tanker, which had gone missing since Thursday, was located in the Gulf of Thailand in the Vietnamese waters and the Malaysian authorities were negotiating with the hijackers for safe release of the 22 crew members.

The Marine Region 1 commander said talks were still going on and the hijackers had requested for a boat for them to escape. The tanker was expected to reach the island on Saturday morning and the Indonesia Maritime authorities had been informed on the matter.

Negotiations still continued to get the hijackers to surrender.

The RMN was still waiting for orders from the National Security Council on the efforts to rescue the crew consisting of 16 Malaysians, five Indonesians and a Myanmar national who were being held captive by at least eight hijackers armed with pistols and parang.

The tanker carrying 6,000 tonnes of petrol worth RM21 million, was reported missing since Thursday while on the way from Malacca to Kuantan Port, Pahang.

The tanker, which authorities confirmed to be MT Orkim Harmony, has been repainted and renamed ‘Kim Harmon’. Azhari said that to date, a total of 16 vessels and four aircraft with 1,200 officers and men are involved in the operation.

Hijackers of oil tanker try to escape to Indonesia - Thai PBS English News

Bangkok Post
June 19, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR - Pirates who commandeered a Malaysian-flagged tanker in the South China Sea for a week have escaped from the vessel in a lifeboat, giving warships the slip under cover of night, the country's naval commander said Friday.

Royal Malaysian Navy chief Admiral Abdul Aziz Jaafar also said the 22 crew members of the MT Orkim Harmony were unscathed except for an Indonesian seamen who was being treated for a gunshot wound to the thigh.

"All eight robbers escaped by using the MT Orkim Harmony's lifeboats," Abdul Aziz said in a statement, adding that a range of Malaysian naval and coast guard assets were now searching for the pirates near Indonesia's Natuna Islands.

The vessel was the latest to be targeted by increasingly bold pirates behind an upsurge of sea hijackings in Southeast Asia in the past two years that have typically targeted smaller tankers carrying valuable petrol, diesel or gas oil.

The ship, with a cargo of about 6,000 tonnes of petrol worth an estimated 21 million ringgit ($5.6 million), went missing June 11 en route from Malaysia's western coast to the port of Kuantan on the east coast.

The pirates were later found to have clumsily altered the ship's name to "Kim Harmon" by painting over the letters.

That failed to fool an air and sea search effort, which located the tanker near Vietnamese and Cambodian waters late Wednesday. Malaysian naval warships subsequently shadowed the ship, urging the pirates to surrender.

Abdul Aziz's statement gave no details on the hijackers' suspected nationality. He had earlier said they spoke with "Indonesian accents". He said the pirates managed to slip away by ordering naval vessels to stay at least five nautical miles from the ship or the crew would be harmed.

The pirates also had warned the tanker's captain not to inform authorities of the escape, causing a five-hour delay in the official response, he added.

The London-based International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has repeatedly warned that Southeast Asian waters were now the world's most piracy-prone, calling for decisive action by regional authorities to prevent the situation spiralling out of control.

Attacks on smaller coastal tankers like the MT Orkim Harmony are occurring roughly once every two weeks, the IMB said recently, with pirates usually syphoning off cargoes to other vessels before later releasing the tankers and crews.

The navy chief said the MT Orkim Harmony's cargo was intact and the tanker was being escorted to Kuantan by the navy.

full article: Malaysian tanker rescued, hijacker escapes | Bangkok Post: news

Bangkok Post / Kyodo News
June 19, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR — Vietnamese authorities have detained eight suspected Indonesian hijackers of a Malaysian oil tanker who abandoned the vessel with its 22 crew and fled after authorities closed in on them by sea and air, officials said on Friday.

Malaysian navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar reported on Twitter that the eight were found on a lifeboat off Vietnam's Tho Chu Island on Friday morning. "They claimed their fishing boat sank," he said, adding that that authorities were investigating the matter.

Earlier, he said in a statement that the eight suspected hijackers of the MT Orkim Harmony had escaped in a "rescue boat" while trying to steer the tanker toward Indonesia's Natuna islands on Thursday night.

The MT Orkim Harmony was en route to Kuantan port in Malaysia's east coast state of Pahang from Malacca in the west coast when communication was lost on June 11, triggering a search that involved Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Australia.

An Australian air force reconnaissance plane, flying out of its base in Malaysia's northern Penang state, spotted the tanker on Wednesday in the Gulf of Thailand within the Vietnamese maritime border. It was some 600 nautical miles away from the ship's last known position, which was off the east coast of Malaysia's southern Johor state.

full article: Vietnam holds tanker hijackers | Bangkok Post: news

Originally Posted by Sumocakewalk

Also, MMEA believed that the lack of distress calls showed that the communications equipment and other tracking devices were deliberately switched off.

Would it be too difficult to embed tracking devices in ships that cannot be turned off?

Originally Posted by Agent_Smith

Originally Posted by Sumocakewalk

Also, MMEA believed that the lack of distress calls showed that the communications equipment and other tracking devices were deliberately switched off.

Would it be too difficult to embed tracking devices in ships that cannot be turned off?

Would it be too difficult to use night vision equipment to see the little bastards "slipping away"?

Originally Posted by Sumocakewalk

The pirates also had warned the tanker's captain not to inform authorities of the escape, causing a five-hour delay in the official response, he added

And this too. WTH? As captain, I would've been on that radio as soon as the pirate's asses hit the water.