The United States Coast Guard, in collaboration with the US Navy, has intercepted a Nigerian-owned supertanker, Skipper, over allegations of crude oil theft, piracy, and other transnational crimes.
The vessel, a 20-year-old Very Large Crude Carrier, VLCC, with IMO Number 9304667, is reportedly owned and managed by Nigeria-based Thomarose Global Ventures Ltd., though its registered owner is listed as Triton Navigation Corp., headquartered in the Marshall Islands.
Authorities said the tanker was illegally flying the Guyanese flag at the time of its arrest.
In a swift rebuttal, Guyana’s Maritime Administration Department, MARAD, confirmed that Skipper is not on its national ship registry and was using the country’s flag without authorisation.
According to US security sources, the seizure was carried out under American law enforcement authority, with President Donald Trump announcing the operation.
Beyond suspicions of stolen crude, the vessel is also being investigated for allegedly transporting a large consignment of hard drugs and operating within a network backed by suspected Iranian and other Islamist-linked money-laundering financiers.
A check with the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, Abuja, showed that Thomarose is inactive.
According to Vanguard, its investigations showed that Thomarose’s corporate address is liste.d as 111 Jakpa Road, Effurun, Warri, Delta State, with CAC registration number 1007876.
However, there are no phone numbers linked to the company.
Nigeria has consistently lost huge sums of money to oil bunkering. According to Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, Nigeria lost 13.5 millions barrels of crude worth $3.3bn to theft, sabotage in the year between 2023 an 2024.
Culled from the Vanguard