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A Singapore-registered oil tanker, identified as the Success 9, was boarded by unidentified persons at about 300 nautical miles (555km) off the Abidjan Coast, Ivory Coast at 10pm (SGT) on Apr. 10.

The vessel is a chemical and oil products tanker built in 2003, based on Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) vessel tracking website Vessel Finder.

Unauthorised boarding

According to a statement by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), 20 crew of various nationalities were on board the vessel at the time of the unauthorised boarding, in which one of them is a Singaporean.

The boarding was first identified by the Maritime Domain Awareness for Trade-Gulf of Guinea (MDAT-GoG), which said an “unknown number of persons” boarded the motor tanker.

The MDAT-GoG is a cooperation centre between the UK’s Royal Navy and the French Navy that aims to maintain coherent maritime situational awareness in the central and western African maritime zones.

The situation is still “ongoing”, according to the centre's warning on its website.

MPA said it was working closely with the ship owner, Monrovia Regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, as well as the Information Fusion Centre at the Changi Command and Control Centre to monitor the situation and offer the necessary assistance.

Gulf of Guinea

The Gulf of Guinea is a crucial shipping zone in the world, notably for oil and gas and transit of goods between Europe and Asia.

However, it has also been described as a “hotspot” for piracy.

According to the Security Council Report in November 2022, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said more than 40 per cent of reported piracy incidents happened in the area out of the 195 reportedly globally.

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Top images via Unsplash/lewis pratt & MDAT-GoG. Image of vessel is for illustration purposes and is not the vessel in question.