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Dodgy Tanker Crew in Nigeria's Dock


FILE: Representative illustration of an oil tanker. Taken October 14, 2022
FILE: Representative illustration of an oil tanker. Taken October 14, 2022

A court in Nigeria's oil hub city Port Harcourt has arraigned 16 foreign crew from an oil tanker, "Heroic Idun,"with officials accusing them of suspected maritime offenses involving attempts to illegally export crude.

Nigerian officials accuse the tanker of attempting to illegally load crude at the Akpo offshore oilfield facility in August before fleeing from the Nigerian navy, which came to intercept the vessel.

The crew pleaded not guilty on Monday to the charges of contravening the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences Act 2019.

Speaking to reporters after the court appearance, the tanker's captain Tanuj Mehta said they had simply followed instructions from their managers.

"We came into Nigeria on August 8. We have some misunderstanding relating to our documents which were supposed to be filed by the ship's agent," he said.

"In the night we had an incident with a vessel which we didn't know at the time as the Nigerian Navy."

Nigerian officials accuse the tanker of attempting to illegally load crude at the Akpo offshore oilfield facility in August before fleeing from the Nigerian navy, which came to intercept the vessel.

Nigeria's navy said the tanker was held in Equatorial Guinea since leaving Nigerian waters, but the Equatorial Guinea government earlier this month authorised its return to Nigeria.

The Heroic Idun tanker case comes as Nigeria's government moves to crack down on massive theft from pipelines and oilfields which costs the country billions of dollars.

Officials say Nigeria's oil production has fallen to historic lows -- below one million barrels per day -- partly due to the unprecedented theft of its crude production from pipelines and fields in the Niger Delta region.

Critics say oil theft in Nigeria, one of Africa's largest petroleum producers, is a much wider problem of corruption involving elements of the security forces and local political leaders.

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