UPDATE: Said Candas, the pirate leader of the group holding the MT Fairchem Bogey, said they are demanding $10 million ransom for the vessel and crew.
The Marshall Islands flagged chemical oil product tanker, MT Fairchem Bogey, has safely anchored off Garacad in Somalia’s Mudug region after it was hijacked by Somalia pirates on August 20th near Oman’s port of Salalah.
s within pirates circles told Somalia Report that all 21 crew members of the vessel are unhurt and they are awaiting the arrival of a negotiator for talks with pirates.
All crew members of the 25,390dwt tanker are being kept in the wheelhouse, but have been allowed to call relatives and have been provided with food, according to the s.
The pirates have also allowed the master of the vessel to contact the Mumbai based crewing company, Anglo-Eastern Ship Management, but the company has not yet established direct contact with the captors of the vessel.
When hijacked, MT Fairchem Bogey was in an anchorage within the Salalah port limit waiting for berthing instructions from the port authorities after discharging at Al Jubail.
She had armed guards on board when she sailed through the Gulf of Aden on its way to unload at the Saudi port of Al Jubail on August 18, but was unprotected when she was taken by armed pirates on August 20 after dropping the security team off in Oman.
The Saudi Arabia flagged chemical/oil product tanker MT Al Balad also came under pirate attack on August 21st while underway in position 1609north-05336east approximately 85 nautical miles southwest of Salalah, Oman.
Heavily armed pirates also attempted to hijack the Liberian flagged Greek owned container ship MSC Namibia II while underway in position 1308north-04911east on August 23 some 100 nautical miles south of Mukalla, Yemen but the vessel managed to evade the pirate attack.
This article was posted via somaliareport.com. To find out more, please visit MaritimeSecurity.Asia
