Ten armed men boarded a Panama-flagged chemical/products carrier underway west of Pulau Kukup on Thursday morning, the IMB reports without revealing the name of the ship.
However reliable sources in the region tell TradeWinds it was the 3,254-dwt Gpt 21 (built 1985) which shipping databases say is owned by Global Unique Petroleum of Singapore.
The men tied up all the crew members and held them hostage in a cabin before commanding the Master to steer the ship to a pre-designated position where another tanker was waiting, the IMB says.
The robbers left the ship after helping themselves to its full cargo as well as the crew’s belongings. None of the crew was injured during incident.
It comes less than a month after a Thai-owned tanker was involved in a similar attack in Malaysian waters.
The 1,924-dwt Danai 4 (built 1986) was relieved of its cargo of fuel oil shortly after leaving Singapore for Vietnam on 9 October.
