The United States Coast Guard, working jointly with the US Navy, has taken custody of a Nigerian-owned supertanker, Skipper, following allegations linking the vessel to crude oil theft, piracy activities, and other cross-border crimes.
The vessel a 20-year-old Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) bearing IMO Number 9304667 is said to be operated by Nigeria-based Thomarose Global Ventures Ltd., although documents list Triton Navigation Corp of the Marshall Islands as its registered owner.
Authorities revealed that the tanker was flying the Guyanese flag without approval at the time it was intercepted.
Guyana’s Maritime Administration Department, MARAD, later confirmed that the ship “is not on its registry and was using the Guyanese flag without authorisation.”
According to American security officials, the operation was executed under US law enforcement authority and publicly announced by President Donald Trump.
Aside from suspicion of stolen crude, investigators are probing the tanker’s alleged role in transporting hard drugs and its possible ties to a network reportedly financed by Iranian-linked and other Islamist-backed money-laundering groups.
A search conducted at the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, in Abuja showed Thomarose to be inactive.
The company’s listed address is 111 Jakpa Road, Effurun, Warri, Delta State, with registration number 1007876, although no contact numbers are associated with the firm.
Reacting to the development, the President of the Centre for Marine Surveyors, Nigeria, Engr. Akin Olaniyan, said the situation raises questions about regulatory enforcement if the tanker indeed departed from Nigerian waters.
According to him: “If the vessel emanated from Nigeria, it suggests our Port State Control is practically non-existent… This issue has nothing to do with Nigeria as a country, but with regulatory enforcement.”
Similarly, the National President of OGSPAN, Mazi Colman Obasi, said: “I have never heard that Nigeria has a supertanker and that it is not active in CAC… the government and other agencies can do more.”
The President of the Ship Owners Association of Nigeria, SOAN, Otunba Sola Adewumi, said he was yet to receive enough details to comment, while former NIMASA Director-General Mr. Temisan Omatseye also noted that the information available to him was still insufficient.
NIMASA’s spokesman, Mr. Edward Osagie, said the agency had no official report yet and requested an official enquiry.
An energy analyst in Port Harcourt expressed concern that illegal activities in the oil sector remain rampant despite the presence of regulatory agencies and private contractors.
He said: “All agencies need to do more than they currently do… No nation can progress if its citizens continue to steal its crude.”
US seizes Nigerian-owned supertanker over alleged crude theft, piracy
