Oil Tanker Seized By Pirates Off Horn of Africa

According to EU NAVFOR reports, “at approximately 0900Z on 28 March, the Crude Oil Tanker the MV ZIRKU was pirated approximately 250 nautical miles South East of Salalah in the eastern part of the Gulf of Aden.

The UAE flagged and Kuwaiti owned vessel was on its way to Singapore from Bashayer (Sudan) when it was attacked.  The vessel was attacked by 2 pirate skiffs firing RPGs and small arms. The MV ZIRKU has a crew of 29 (1 Croatian, 1 Iraqi, 1 Filipino, 1 Indian, 3 Jordanians, 3 Eqyptians, 2 Ukrainians and 17 Pakistanis). There is no further information about the crew at present.”

Despite this report, Kuwait’s state oil company denied that pirates have hijacked a Kuwaiti tanker, in a statement by state news agency KUNA.  A spokesman from the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) has gone on record to declare the incident report by EU NAVFOR to be "totally incorrect."

EU NAVFOR continues to monitor and investigate the situation.