Missing tanker not found off Sabah, search over

Missing tanker not found off Sabah, search over

SINGAPORE (Reuters): The Malaysian navy and air police have called off a search for the tanker Petro Ranger, suspected to have been hijacked, in waters north of Borneo island, rescue officials said yesterday.

Officials said the search was launched this morning after a passing vessel reported seeing a tanker fitting the description of the Petro Ranger, which has been missing since April 17, but it was called off after nothing was found in the area.

But as this mission was wound down, another passing vessel reported citing a similar looking tanker in southern Philippines and the Philippines coast guard are now out looking for the tanker, they said.

"We are not sure if the tanker is there. Earlier we had a report that it was in Hong Kong and that turned out to be false," the official who declined to be identified said.

The Malaysian-flagged tanker, laden with 11,000 tons of diesel and kerosene, left Singapore on April 16 and was last heard from near the resort island of Tioman, off peninsular Malaysia's southeastern coast, its Singapore-based agents Petroships Pte. Ltd. said Saturday.

The tanker has a crew of 21, including Australian master Kenneth Blyth, seven Malaysians, six Indonesians, four Bangladeshis, one Filipino, a Ghanaian and a Myanmar national, an official of the shipping agents said.

Search efforts were launched from the East Malaysian Sabah state after a tanker similar to the Petro Ranger was spotted by a passing vessel in waters off Kudat, in the Balabac Strait, between Sabah and the Philippines.

"We had a new message from the MRCC (Malaysian Maritime Rescue and Co-ordination Center) that the ship might be at Kudat. We have sent the first sortie this morning to search for the tanker," an operations staff at the Maritime Enforcement Co- ordinating Center said from Lumut in West Malaysia.

The staff said the C-130 plane, which belongs to the air-wing of the Malaysian police had flown its first mission at 9 a.m. local time (8 a.m. Jakarta time) and two patrol boats were also involved in searching the waters off Kudat for the tanker.

An official at the MRCC said the Australian airforce was also involved in search missions to locate the missing tanker.

Nordin Mohamadin, an officer at the Kuala Lumpur-based MRCC, said authorities in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia had also been kept informed about the missing tanker but so far none had joined in the search.

The Petro Ranger was on its way to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to discharge its cargo when it went missing.

Oil traders said the cargo was worth about US$1.5 million. Officials said it was the first major suspected hijacking in the South China Sea near Malaysian waters this year.