A Thai oil tanker carrying diesel fuel went missing after it departed from Singapore on its way to Indonesia, an international anti-piracy watch group reported on Saturday.
The MT Orapin 4, with 14 crew aboard, lost contact with its owner after leaving port on May 27 en route to Indonesia’s Kalimantan province, the Kuala Lumpur-based International Maritime Bureau said.
“All we know at this time is it that it has gone missing,” bureau spokesman Noel Choong said when asked whether it was hijacked by pirates active in South-East Asian waters. “We learnt about the incident on Tuesday.” Ahmad Zahratuddin, duty officer of the IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre, alerted all ships to be on the lookout for the missing vessel.
“All ships are requested to keep a lookout for the missing tanker and to report to the IMP Piracy Reporting Centre immediately if sighted,” he said.
The missing vessel, which was built in 1983, has a gross tonnage of 2,176 metric tons and was carrying 3,377 metric tons of automotive diesel fuel when it went missing.
Maritime Bulletin, an online shipping news portal said there is a very strong possibility the tanker was hijacked in a bid to steal its cargo.
In April, suspected pirates boarded Japanese oil tanker Naniwa Maru 1 in the Straits of Malacca and robbed the vessel with 2.5 million dollars worth of diesel fuel.
