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AfrOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT AfrOil

Pirates seize LNG tanker from

Punta Europa LNG terminal

EQUATORIAL GUINEA AN LNG tanker has been seized by pirates off in South Africa on October 28.
the coast of Equatorial Guinea, according to The Methane Princess is one of 20 ships
Dryad Global, a UK-based maritime security seized by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea since the
firm. beginning of 2020, according to Dryad Global.
Dryad Global reported at the weekend that It also noted that the incidence of piracy tends to
pirates had boarded the vessel, known as the increase during the last few months of the year.
Methane Princess, on the morning of October “Incident volumes have historically increased
17. The attack occurred while the tanker was between September and December as maritime
anchored at the Punta Europe LNG export ter- conditions improve,” it said.
minal, shortly after the termination of loading The firm also pointed out that there had been
operations, it said. some year-on-year shifts on this front in the
The company noted that all of the crewmem- region. “Despite larger numbers of kidnapped
bers on board the ship had been able to retreat personnel across the first half of 2020 [in the
to safety after the sounding of the alarm. Only Gulf of Guinea], the current trend indicates that
one of these workers had sustained any injuries, incidents of kidnapping and numbers of kid-
it said. napped personnel are tracking below the same
It also stated, though, that the pirates had time period in 2019,” it said. ™
taken two Filipino nationals who were on the
jetty near the ship hostage. One of these hostages
jumped off the vessel and into the water before
being rescued, it said, while the other was not
able to escape.
Equatoguinean authorities responded
quickly to the incident, sending several naval
vessels to the LNG terminal within the first
hour after the pirates boarded the ship. How-
ever, no shots were fired, and the pirates were
able to depart from Punta Europa at the sched-
uled time.
It was not immediately clear where the
pirates intended to take the vessel, which has
a capacity of 138,000 cubic metres. As of press
time, maritime tracking websites were reporting
that the Methane Princess had sailed south-west
after leaving Punta Europa and could no longer
be monitored. The tanker had been due to arrive More than 20 tankers have been seized in the area this year (Image: Dryad Global)

DNG to start South African

LNG bunkering next year

SOUTH AFRICA DNG Energy of South Africa plans to begin Bay. Accordingly, DNG will offer onshore and
LNG bunkering in 2021 in the Port of Coega in offshore bunkering, using ship-to-ship transfers
the Eastern Cape, after securing approval from for international trading vessels, and so-called
authorities. LNG “milk run” deliveries within the country.
The company said on October 14 that the This will involve placing LNG in containers and
relevant licence had been issued by the Transnet trucking it to consumers for use in power gen-
National Port Authority, giving DNG the right eration, replacing more polluting and costlier
to moor its floating storage unit (FSU) in Algoa diesel.

Week 42 21•October•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13