Five days after an oil tanker; Marine Express went missing in circumstances thought to be piracy- related off the coast of Benin Republic, there is yet to contact with the ship.
The Marine Express, with 22 Indian nationals aboard is carrying more than 13,000 tons of gasoline.
The tanker went missing on February 1, 2018 in the Gulf of Guinea, according to a statement from the Anglo Eastern, the ship's management company.
Anglo-Eastern also said it had contacted the families of the missing sailors.
An Anglo Eastern spokesman told Reuters that the Marine Express tanker, managed by Hong Kong-based Anglo-Eastern, was last seen in Benin’s waters at 3.30 a.m. GMT on Friday after which contact was lost.
The cause of the loss of communication was unknown and a search was underway, conducted with help from Nigerian and Beninese authorities, Anglo-Eastern said.
“We regret that contact has been lost with the vessel, which was the Cotonou Anchorage in Benin, West Africa,” the spokesman said.
India’s minister of external affairs Sushma Swaraj said on Twitter that 22 Indian nationals were onboard.
Piracy-related issues in the Gulf of Guinea threat has increased.
Ships in the area were the target of a series of piracy-related incidents last year, according to a January report by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which highlighted the waters off West Africa as an area of growing concern.
The IMB said there were 10 incidents of kidnapping involving 65 crew members in or around Nigerian waters.
Globally 16 vessels reported being fired upon, seven of which were in the Gulf of Guinea.
On Jan. 10 a company lost communication with its tanker anchored in Cotonou, according to the IMB.
IMB said after a six-day search, the tanker and crew were found safely in Lagos after the tanker owner negotiated with the hijackers.
The report comes in less than a month since 22 crew members of another tanker were taken by pirates while their ship was at anchor off Benin, West Africa.
On January 18, the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker MT Barrett and its 22 crew members were later released from captivity after a six-day ordeal.
The owner of the ship Union Maritime did not disclose the terms of the crew’s release, which might have included paying of ransom.
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