July ReCAAP Report: Hijackings of Ships for Theft of Oil Cargo has Decreased

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday August 10, 2016

The latest report from the ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre (ReCAPP), which covers incidents of piracy and armed robbery in Asian waters during July 2016, says hijackings of ships for theft of oil cargo has decreased overall.

The report indicates that there was a total of four reported incidents of armed robbery against ships reported in Asia during July, including one robbery of a tanker at a wharf in Lanang Davao City, Philippines, in which the perpetrators, armed with guns and knives, boarded the vessel and stole the ship stores before escaping.

Two of the other incidents included abductions of crew from ships in the waters off eastern Sabah and southern Philippines, while the fourth was a robbery at the Taboneo anchorage in Indonesia.

"Between January and July 2016, a total of 47 incidents were reported, and this represents a 63 percent decrease in total number of incidents compared  to January-July 2015 when 126 incidents were reported," explained the report, adding that the January to July statistics for 2016 were the lowest within a five year period.

"The improvement was most apparent in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS)," noted the report.

As Ship & Bunker reported, the latest half year ReCAAP report covering incidents of piracy and armed robbery in Asian waters during January to June, showed that only 2 hijackings of ships for the purpose of oil cargo theft had occurred so far in 2016, compared to 10 in 2015.