LNG

An attack on the LNG and oil and gas-producing United Arab Emirates has led a UK-based shipping security firm to raise a commercial shipping warning in the region to “substantial” and for Saudi Arabian and UAE-flagged ships to “severe”.

UK maritime security firm, Dryad Global, has reported that an LNG carrier, the 138,160 cubic metres capacity “Methane Princess”, was attacked and boarded while at anchor off Malabo near the Equatorial Guinea LNG export plant in West Africa.

“The vessel was attacked shortly after breaking off loading operations,” said Dryad, citing the Channel 16 VHF international radio distress frequency.

“The alarm was sounded and all on deck were able to retreat to citadel,” said Dryad.

“Two Filipino nationals were on the jetty and both were taken hostage. One of the hostages, jumped off the pirate vessel and was rescued. One person entering the citadel was also injured and a total of one hostage was taken,” said the Dryad report..

Dryad added that no gun shots were fired and an Equatorial Guinea Navy vessel was at the scene within 40 minutes and a Navy patrol vessel arrived in 45 minutes.

“Navy and Ministry personnel conducted post-event inquiries. The tanker departed on time and was en route to its next port,” said the report.

“The pirate vessel’s direction of travel remains unverified. Further details regarding the incident are unclear,” it added.

The “Methane Princess”, owned by Golar LNG, had declared its arrival at the Punta Europa export plant 24 hours prior to the boarding incident.

“This latest incident is understood to be the 20th recorded kidnapping event in the Gulf of Guinea within 2020,” stated Dryad.

The Equatorial Guinea LNG plant began production in May 2007 and its single processing Train currently produces 3.7 million tonnes per annum.

The shareholders of EG LNG’s holding company have contracted volumes to Royal Dutch Shell under a 17-year agreement inherited from BG Group of the UK after a takeover.

BG originally signed that deal to ship the LNG cargoes to the Lake Charles import terminal in the US state of Louisiana before the shale-gas expansion turned the US into an exporter.

Dryad Global reported the previous attack on an LNG carrier off West Africa in December 2019 when a single speedboat with 10 armed men on board approached the “LNG Lokoja”, while the vessel was heading for the Bonny Island export plant in Nigeria.

Those pirates were reported to have opened fire on the vessel. However, the ship conducted evasive manoeuvres causing the attack to fail.

That incident took place some 70 nautical miles northwest of Sao Tomé and Príncipe, the former Portuguese colony.

The 148,300 cubic metres capacity “LNG Lokoja” , under the management of BW Gas of Singapore, was met by the Nigerian Patrol vessel “Defender VI” and the Portuguese Navy vessel “Zaire” and continued to port under escort.

UK maritime security consultants, Dryad Global, have reported a growing number of attacks by armed groups against shipping and oil and gas platforms in Mexican waters south of LNG shipping routes in the Gulf of Mexico, a problem previously associated with nations like Somalia.

The latest report from Mexican waters of the GoM said the Mexican-flagged Offshore Supply Vessel “Natalie” was boarded while conducting normal operations in the vicinity of the Odin offshore platform, located 12 nautical miles northeast of Coatzacoalcos, a major port city in the southern part of the Mexican state of Veracruz.

Coatzacoalcos is also a port where future deliveries of US LNG and ethane, derived from shale gas, will be delivered under agreements between US and Mexican companies.

“It is understood that the vessel was boarded early morning within hours of darkness. A channel 16 broadcast received from the vessel stated: ‘we would like to inform you that at this moment pirates are getting on board the ship which is near the Odin’ platform,” said the message monitored by Dryad.

Reports reaching Dryad indicate that the crew was subjected to violent armed boarding and robbery of personal belongings.

Dryad said that in 2020 there has been a “significant increase” in maritime crime and piracy in the waters offshore the Mexican states of Campeche, Tabasco and Veracruz.

The Mexican LNG import terminal at Altamira is just north of the troubled areas where the incidents have taken place.

“Armed criminal groups have been reported to target and rob commercial vessels, oil platforms and offshore supply vessels in the Bay of Campeche area in the southern Gulf of Mexico,” said Dryad.

Such activities were commonplace offshore Somalia in northeast Africa in the 1990s, though on a much larger scale and required the deployment of western naval forces to counter the pirates.

The Somalian piracy problem was depicted in a movie based on the true experiences in 2009 of “Captain Phillips”, master of the US-flagged cargo vessel “Maersk Alabama”, which was hijacked.

The US Maritime Administration recently issued an advisory about possible attacks in the southern GoM, called 2020-008-Southern Gulf of Mexico-Vessel Attacks.

The US report details such events and actions to be taken when faced with threats of piracy and armed robbery.

“The pirates-robbers targeting offshore infrastructure and vessels in this area typically operate in small groups of between 5 and 15 individuals aboard several boats,” said the MARAD advisory.

“The attackers are reportedly armed with an assortment of weapons including assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, machetes, knives and tools,” it added.

“They are known to use violence to ensure compliance and prevent resistance,” it stated.

Around 20 fishing vessels and 35 oil platforms and offshore supply vessels have been targeted since January 2018 in the Bay of Campeche area alone of the southern GoM.

“Attacks recorded to date have involved the discharge of firearms, crew injuries, hostage taking and theft. At least five of these attacks occurred in April 2020,” said the UK report.

The last LNG carrier to come under attack was off West Africa on 28th of December 2019 and that incident was reported by Dryad.

A single speedboat with 10 armed men on-board fired on the “LNG Lokoja”, while the vessel was heading for the Bonny Island export plant in Nigeria.

However, the vessel conducted evasive manoeuvres causing the attack to fail some 70 nautical miles northwest of Sao Tomé and Príncipe, the island nation and former Portuguese colony.

The 148,300 cubic metres capacity vessel was met by the Nigerian Patrol vessel “Defender VI” and the Portuguese Navy vessel “Zaire” and was taken to port under escort.

UK maritime security consultants, Dryad Global, reported an attack by a single speedboat with 10 armed men on-board on the liquefied natural gas carrier, “LNG Lokoja”, while the vessel was heading for the Bonny Island export plant in Nigeria.