Albania Seizes Tanker Carrying Oil Suspected of Coming from Russia
Albania has seized an oil tanker carrying 22,500 tonnes of oil suspected of coming from Russia and arrested the crew for breaching a Western embargo, Albanian police said on Monday. The Liberian-registered oil and chemical tanker was seized in the coastal town of Durres. "From the first steps of investigation it is suspected that this oil shipment is coming from countries under an oil embargo, especially from Russia," police said in the statement. "The tanker departed from Azerbaijan and was allegedly loaded with oil at Greece's Kalamata port…
Piracy Activity Drifts Towards Southeast Asia
Since 2010, there has been a steadily increasing trend of piracy attacks in Southeast Asia, according to a report released by UNITAR (UN Institute for Training and Research), with 150 separate incidents just from last year alone. After significant strides in reducing the number of hijackings near war-torn Somalia over the past few years, the United Nations declared last month that the epicenter of piracy activity is now in waters off Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The MT Oriental Glory, a Malaysian tanker carrying oil gas cargo, was hijacked two weeks ago in the South China Sea, an apparent and alarming verification that this report is already coming to fruition.
Grounded Tanker Freed in Lower Miss.
According to a report from The Times-Picayune, on June 15, five tugboats freed a tanker carrying oil that had run aground Monday in the lower Mississippi River near Pilottown. The vessel ran aground just above Cubit's Gap, about 10 miles below Venice. It had a 42-foot draft, while restrictions in that area have been set at 43 feet since last week. Source: The Times-Picayune
