West African pirates off Lome, Togo, release tankship 'BW Rhine' after a week of pillaging oil product cargo
Pirates have freed a gasoline tanker they hijacked, after stealing some of the cargo, the shipowner reports, in a fresh example of a growing trend in the region to hold vessels briefly to offload valuable oil products.
The fully-laden BW Maritime owned 75,687 dwt product tanker BW Rhine was forcibly removed from a safe anchorage position off Lome, Togo on 28, April 2012.
On 4, May, owners reported BW Rhine hasf been released off Nigeria by its captors. All 24 crew members were reported safe.
The Master of BW Rhine Captain Dheeraj Sharma confirmed that the vessel has been held under duress while the cargo was being stolen.
“We are all very relieved and our immediate priority is to ensure the wellbeing of our employees,” says BW Maritime CEO Andreas Sohmen-Pao.
BW Rhine is presently en-route to a nearby port, where support services have been arranged for the crew upon arrival.
This is the first known hijack case of this nature in Lome, Togo. The attack took place at a patrolled anchorage with a large number of other vessels in the area. A thorough investigation of the incident will be undertaken in the coming weeks and the company requests that respect is given to the privacy of the crew and their families after their ordeal.
