The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has seized two foreign-flagged vessels in Pengerang, Malaysia under the charge of illegal bunker transfer.
Amran Daud, maritime enforcement chief in Tanjung Sedili, stated that one of the vessels is registered in Equatorial Guinea with six Myanmar nationals and two Indonesian crewmen. According to Daud, on 31 August, the Equatorial Guinea-registered vessel was transferring about 500 tonnes of marine fuel oil to a Guadeloupe-registered vessel.
“The agency [MMEA] also detained the vessel, three Indonesians, and a Myanmar national crewman to assist with the investigations,” said Daud.
Initially, the MMEA was observing the two vessels through a patrol boat at 01:10 h local time on 31 August, about 1.8 n miles southeast of Teluk Ramunia. Then, the agency waited for the two vessels to commence transferring fuel oil before detaining them for illegal bunker transfer.
In October 2014, the MMEA had said that the agency would step up operations and patrols to curb illegal activities. In April 2015, the MMEA had conducted a raid and seized six fishing boats as well as 140,000 litres of illegally purchased diesel.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
