Search for Vietnamese oil tanker continues amid hijack fears

SINGAPORE // Fears are mounting that a Vietnamese oil tanker which has not been heard from for six days may have been taken by pirates.

Maritime authorities across Southeast Asia are scouring the seas for the Sunrise 689, which had a crew of 18 people and was carrying over 5,000 tonnes of gas oil.

The ship, which vanished from radar 40 minutes after leaving Singapore on October 2, was bound for Quang Tri province in central Vietnam.

Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, said they suspect it was hijacked.

“It looks like their communication system is off or destroyed,” Mr Choong said, adding that an attempt to trace the tanker using satellites had failed.

The ship is owned by Vietnam’s Haiphong Sea Product Shipbuilding, which said its last known location was 115 nautical miles northeast of Singapore.

“We learnt that parties involved have started the search for the ship. So far Vietnam has yet to send any ship to the last-known location,” said company official Nguyen Vu Diep.

There has been a series of piracy attacks in Southeast Asian waters this year, with at least 11 vessels hijacked in the Strait of Malacca or South China Sea since April, according to the IMB.

On August 28, the Thailand-flagged tanker VL 14 was attacked by six armed pirates 30 nautical miles north of Tioman Island in Malaysia. The pirates drained the vessel's cargo of l,296 tonnes of lube oil before escaping.

Vietnam’s national search and rescue committee said the foreign ministry had sent diplomatic notes on Tuesday to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Brunei and Cambodia asking for help in the search.

It said that its maritime search and rescue coordination centre, coastguards and navy were searching for the vessel along with agencies from other countries in the region.

“Maritime authorities are out searching for her [the vessel] using surface ships and maritime patrol aircraft,” said a spokeswoman for the Regional Co-operation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia in Singapore.

* Reuters