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Thursday, February 27, 2014
The oil tanker that was hijacked off the coast of Angola in January has been returned to Angolan authorities. While the tanker was returned, its cargo was light about $8 million in diesel.
The MT Kerala was under a time charter contract for Sonangol when it was hijacked off the coast of Luanda in mid-January, it was later intercepted by the Nigerian Navy and then taken into Ghanaian waters due to security reasons.
It is unclear who hijacked the ship and the Angolan government is not convinced it isn’t an inside job. The Angolan government accused the crew of disabling communications on the ship and then faking a pirate attack.
“The MT Kerala was found in Nigerian waters, but as the coast there did not offer security it was taken to Ghanaian waters and then recovered with help from both countries’ authorities and brought to Luanda,” Anabela Fonseca, a member of state-run Sonangol’s board told a news conference.
“It is now with Angola government authorities … We (Sonangol) managed to recover around 78% of the cargo, but they managed to transfer about 12,000 tons of diesel, so that is what we lost,” she added, there was no comment from Fonseca on who was responsible for the theft.
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