Hirado

The 'Hirado, coming from the Basra Offshore Oil Terminal and being under way in position 001 06 13.8N, 103 43 45.6E, in the Malacca Strait was boarded by five perpetrators who were sighted in the engine room of the vessel on Oct 18, 2019, at 11.25 p.m. The Master subsequently raised the alarm and the perpetrators fled the tanker and escaped. A search was conducted, nothing was reported stolen and there was no further sighting of the perpetrators on board the tanker. The incident was reported to the Singapore authorities via VHF radio. During the incident there was no confrontation between the perpetrators and the crew of the tanker. Following the incident, the tanker continued its passage to the next port of call at Yingkou, ETA Oct 27.

Iraq began loading oil from a long-awaited new floating Single Point Mooring (SPM) platform in the Gulf on Thursday, two sources at the state-owned South Oil Company said, in a breakthrough that could substantially boost its exports. "We started the loading at 2:45 pm (1145 GMT). The loading process is normal. The situation of pipes and the SPM is stable, and we have no problems," said one of the sources. The average loading rate into the tanker Maersk Hirado was 22,000 barrels per hour, the source said. Iraq's oil exports have been held back by a lack of loading capacity in the Gulf after decades of neglect of infrastructure caused by war and economic sanctions. The opening of its new platform, built by Australian construction firm Leighton, had been held up for weeks, with officials blaming poor weather. The new terminal is the first of a planned four, each of which will ultimately have a capacity of 850,000 barrels per day, adding 3.4 million barrels of export capacity to make way for a doubling of Iraq's oil production in the next few years. http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCABRE8270Q520120308