The Italian Navy is helping the tanker B. Ocean after it was robbed and left disabled by pirates, in the Gulf of Guinea.
According to reports, after attempting to proceed under its own power to Abidjan, it became clear that the tanker requires assistance and is not expected to reach port until mid-week.
Coming to help, the Italian patrol vessel Comandante Borsini was deployed. A technical team from the patrol vessel boarded the tanker, working to restore the propulsion.
As the Italian Navy explained, the pirates had impacted the navigation and communication systems, while they also caused extensive damage to the engine.
Earlier, South Korean officials had confirmed that pirates boarded the product tanker B. Ocean near Cote d’Ivoire, which they released after a while.
Initially, the monitoring operation MDAT GOG (Maritime Domain Awareness for Trade Gulf of Guinea) had informed that communication had been lost with tanker, on November 23.
The pirates are believed to have stolen petroleum from the tanker, also damaging the ship’s equipment. Further commenting on the incident, South Korea noted that the captain had contacted the shipping company after the pirates left the tanker.
A notable fact is that in January, the same vessel was hijacked around 50 nm south of Abidjan. Then, the armed boarders stole 977 tons of diesel before releasing the vessel.
