Maritime Security and Safety
Global Maritime Safety Watch: Tanker Collision, Gulf Attacks and Container Losses Dominate Weekly Incident Log
Global Maritime Safety Watch: Tanker Collision, Gulf Attacks and Container Losses Dominate Weekly Incident Log
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News Correspondent
A string of serious maritime safety incidents across global shipping lanes last week — including a deadly tanker-fishing vessel collision off India, coordinated projectile strikes on commercial ships near the UAE, and fresh Iranian attacks on fuel tankers in Iraqi waters — underscores the compounding navigational and geopolitical hazards confronting the international shipping community.
Tanker Strikes Fishing Trawler Off Kerala; Two Fishermen Feared Dead
Two fishermen are feared dead after the Panamanian-flagged chemical tanker Solis collided with the locally registered fishing trawler St. Joseph in the Arabian Sea on 8 March.
The collision occurred approximately 120 nautical miles off the coast of Kerala, India, where the fishing vessel had been anchored. The Solis struck the trawler around noon, causing severe damage that sent the smaller vessel to the seabed within minutes.
Nine survivors were rescued by the Solis crew, while the Indian Coast Guard vessel ICGS Anagh responded promptly to the scene, recovering the survivors and transporting them to Vizhinjam Port. A search for the two missing fishermen remained ongoing at the time of reporting.
India’s Directorate General of Shipping has since opened a formal investigation into the incident. The Solis, built in 2003, measures 145.5 metres in length with a gross tonnage of 11,573.
Two Commercial Vessels Hit by Projectiles Near UAE Waters
Two commercial ships sustained damage from suspected projectile strikes off the coast of the United Arab Emirates on 11 March, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has confirmed.
The Japanese-flagged container ship One Majesty was struck approximately 25 nautical miles northwest of Ras Al Khaimah at around 01:58 UTC. The vessel’s captain reported an impact from a “suspected but unknown projectile,” though all crew members were confirmed safe. The ship subsequently sailed towards safe anchorage with minor damage.
In a separate incident occurring minutes later, the Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier Star Gwyneth was hit by an unknown projectile about 50 nautical miles northwest of Dubai, sustaining hull damage. No injuries or pollution were reported.
UKMTO has urged vessels transiting the area to maintain heightened vigilance and promptly report any suspicious activity as investigations continue.
OOCL Sunflower Loses 57 Containers in North Pacific Storm
The containership OOCL Sunflower lost approximately 57 containers overboard while navigating south of the Aleutian Island Chain in the North Pacific Ocean on 3 March, in conditions described as extreme.
The vessel, which had departed Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on 23 February, encountered violent seas that caused containers to go overboard while others on deck shifted or sustained damage. Rough conditions prevented the crew from carrying out a full damage assessment at sea. A comprehensive inspection was scheduled upon the ship’s arrival at Long Beach, United States, on 12 March.
Built in 2025 and sailing under the Hong Kong flag, the OOCL Sunflower measures nearly 367 metres in length and carries a capacity of 16,828 TEU.
Bulk Carrier Grounded in Çanakkale Strait, Later Refloated
The Panamanian-flagged bulk carrier Nota App ran aground in Turkey’s Çanakkale Strait on 11 March after suffering engine failure during a turning manoeuvre. The vessel, carrying a grain cargo from Russia to Egypt, was successfully refloated by Turkish rescue teams without casualties or pollution.
Three tugboats — Kurtarma 21, Kurtarma 4, and Kurtarma 15 — along with the rescue boat KEGM-8 were deployed by Turkey’s General Directorate of Coastal Safety. Divers also conducted an underwater inspection before the vessel was escorted to Karanlık Liman Anchorage for further examination.
Iranian Forces Attack Two Fuel Tankers in Iraqi Waters
Two fuel tankers were set ablaze after reportedly being struck by Iranian explosive-laden boats in Iraqi territorial waters in the early hours of 12 March, amid the continuing regional conflict involving Iran, the United States, and Israel.
The vessels attacked were the Safesea Vishnu, registered in the Marshall Islands, and the Zefyros, registered in Malta. Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Company confirmed the identities of both ships. The Zefyros was reported to have been loaded with condensate from the Basra Gas Company when it came under attack in the ship-to-ship transfer zone within Iraqi waters.
Twenty-five crew members from both vessels were rescued, while search operations for remaining crew continued. The body of one crew member was recovered from the water.
In response to the attacks, Iraqi oil ports were shut down, though cargo ports remained operational.
Drone Strike Sets Fuel Tanks Ablaze at Port of Salalah
Fuel storage tanks at Oman’s Port of Salalah were set on fire on 11 March following a drone attack attributed to Iranian forces. Several terminals were temporarily closed, though merchant vessels remained docked at the port. Omani authorities reported no casualties among port workers or residents and indicated that countermeasures were being deployed.
The Salalah strike marks a significant escalation, extending the theatre of conflict beyond direct Iran-Israel-US exchanges to threatening Gulf energy storage infrastructure and critical maritime trade corridors.
Nigeria Watch: What These Incidents Mean for Nigerian Shipping Stakeholders
The concentrated cluster of incidents across the Gulf of Oman, Iraqi territorial waters, and the UAE coastline carries direct implications for Nigeria’s maritime sector.
For Nigerian shipowners and vessel operators, the attacks on the Safesea Vishnu and Zefyros — both in what should have been a controlled ship-to-ship transfer zone — are a sobering reminder that even regulated loading operations in contested waters can become targets. War risk premiums for Gulf transits are almost certain to rise in the weeks ahead, with knock-on effects for freight rates on Middle East-origin refined products arriving at Nigerian ports.
Crude oil and petroleum product traders supplying the Dangote Refinery and other downstream operators should note that the shutdown of Iraqi oil ports, even temporarily, tightens regional supply dynamics and can feed into international crude price volatility. Nigeria, as a net importer of refined petroleum despite its upstream endowment, remains acutely exposed to such fluctuations.
The drone strike on Port of Salalah is equally significant: Salalah is a key transshipment hub on the Asia-Europe-West Africa corridor. Any sustained disruption there would extend voyage durations and increase the cost of cargo flows to West African ports, including Apapa and Tin Can Island.
For NIMASA and the Nigerian Navy, the proliferation of drone-and-projectile maritime attacks across the Gulf underlines the urgency of developing comparable detection and deterrence capabilities in Nigeria’s own offshore zone. The Gulf of Guinea remains a different threat environment, but the evolution of asymmetric maritime warfare is a lesson that no maritime administration can afford to ignore.
Waterways News Maritime Safety Desk
Maritime Security and Safety
Shipping Lines Hail Security Gains as US Lifts 12-Year Condition of Entry on Nigerian Vessels
Shipping Lines Hail Security Gains as US Lifts 12-Year Condition of Entry on Nigerian Vessels
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News
International shipping lines operating in Nigeria have welcomed the United States Coast Guard’s (USCG) decision to remove the 12-year Condition of Entry (CoE) restriction on vessels arriving in the US from Nigerian ports, describing it as evidence of the country’s improved maritime security standing.
The CoE, in force since 2014, subjected vessels that had called at Nigerian ports within their previous five port calls to additional security checks and enhanced scrutiny before US entry. Its removal ends over a decade of extra costs, delays and paperwork for operators trading between Nigeria and the US.
Maersk’s Terminal Planning Lead for West Africa, Srijesh Subramanian, said the move would benefit both importers and exporters given the volume of Nigerian trade with the US, and would likely embolden shipping companies to expand their services. He read the decision as a signal that Nigeria now looks like a safer environment than previously perceived.
Ocean Network Express’s Nigeria Director, Stefan Pedersen, credited the outcome to NIMASA’s sustained work, though he noted ONE has no direct US sailings and so is not directly affected. He expects the removal of restrictions to still ease trade generally for lines that do run direct US services.
Pacific International Lines’ Managing Director, Ugo Opiah, framed the lifting as an image win: qualifying for US standards marks a country as a high-integrity player, and Nigeria’s decade-plus wait to clear the bar signals real improvement in maritime security compliance.
Mediterranean Shipping Company’s Vessel and Terminal Coordinator, Adesina Omoparuwa, said the restriction had forced MSC into trans-shipment routings rather than direct Nigeria–US calls, the same workaround the line uses for China, and that direct service should now become possible, opening opportunities for US-based businesses to trade directly through Nigerian ports.
Nigeria Watch
The CoE’s removal is the payoff of a process that has run since at least 2019, when the USCG first proposed a phased, bi-annual assessment track with NIMASA to bring Nigerian ports into full ISPS Code compliance. The agency conducted four full assessments of Nigeria’s port facilities and national maritime security framework between March 2024 and April 2026 before signing off.
Marine and Blue Economy Minister Dr Adegboyega Oyetola has called the lift a major milestone, crediting sustained collaboration between the Ministry, NIMASA, port and terminal operators and shipping lines. Washington has echoed that framing: in a letter dated August 26, 2026, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Frank Garcia congratulated Oyetola on the reform, tying it to Nigeria’s anti-terrorism and port-security compliance record.
For Nigeria’s port competitiveness push, running alongside the NPERA Act’s commencement and the deep seaport approvals at Badagry, Olokola, Ibom and Bakassi, the CoE exit removes one of the more persistent reputational drags on the sector: an active US security flag that shipping lines, insurers and freight forwarders had priced into Nigeria-bound trade for over a decade. Whether the savings in inspection time, insurance and freight cost are passed down to Nigerian shippers, or absorbed by the lines quoted here, is the next thing worth watching.
Two More Tankers Struck in Strait of Hormuz as Attack Count Hits Five in a Week
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
Two more tankers have been hit while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, leaving two seafarers with minor injuries and pushing the number of reported attacks or security incidents against commercial vessels in the waterway to at least five since 16 September.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said an inbound tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile on Monday. Two crew members sustained minor injuries, but the vessel stayed under its own power and continued to its next port, with no environmental impact reported.
Hours later, UKMTO issued a second alert after an outbound LPG tanker reported being struck by debris from unknown projectiles. All crew were reported safe and the vessel also continued its voyage. Authorities are investigating both incidents, and UKMTO has not attributed either attack to a specific actor.
The two strikes build on a Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) advisory covering three earlier attacks between 16 and 18 September, one of which saw a tanker’s hull breached by a projectile, sparking a fire. JMIC continues to rate the threat level in the strait as “severe,” citing a high likelihood of deliberate hostile action and pointing to a pattern of harassment by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — drone overflights, surveillance of merchant vessels and VHF hailing, alongside the direct attacks.
Traffic through the chokepoint remains sharply depressed. Only 17 commodity vessels were visibly transiting over the weekend, down from 37 the week before and against a pre-war daily average of roughly 125. That figure excludes vessels sailing with their AIS transponders switched off, and JMIC notes a persistent gap between visible and actual traffic.
Nigeria Watch
For Nigerian maritime stakeholders, the Hormuz crisis is no longer a distant Gulf story. It is a cost line. Every fresh escalation feeds directly into the war-risk insurance premiums and freight rates that Nigerian importers, refiners and shipping agents ultimately absorb, since global tanker and container capacity pulled off the Hormuz route tightens supply elsewhere and pushes rates up across long-haul trades, including those serving West African ports.
The renewed attacks also sharpen the stakes around Nigeria’s push for a stronger voice at the IMO Council table and its broader blue-economy diplomacy under Minister Adegboyega Oyetola. A sustained Gulf disruption is exactly the kind of systemic shock that tests whether Nigeria’s seat translates into influence over how global shipping risk, insurance and rerouting decisions are made, rather than Nigeria simply absorbing the downstream cost.
Locally, the episode is a reminder of the layered nature of “maritime security” as a policy word: the Deep Blue Project and Gulf of Guinea security architecture address piracy and armed robbery close to home, but Nigeria’s ports and shippers remain exposed to security failures thousands of kilometres away in the Gulf.
Waterways News will continue tracking how the Hormuz situation feeds into freight cost pressure at Nigerian ports and NIMASA’s public messaging on the issue.
Navy Renews Call for Special Maritime Courts, But Nigeria’s Justice Gap Persists
By Raymond Gold
The Nigerian Navy has again pressed for the creation of dedicated courts to try maritime offences, arguing that Nigeria’s regular judicial process is too slow to match the pace at which security agencies are arresting suspects at sea.
The renewed push came last week in Lagos at the 4th Ehingbeti Blue Economy Hub, on a panel built around strengthening the regulatory and justice frameworks needed to secure Nigeria’s blue economy. The session drew senior officers from the Navy and Marine Police, alongside a retired flag officer and other maritime stakeholders.
Rear Admiral A. A. Mustapha, Flag Officer Commanding the Western Naval Command, represented on the panel by his Chief Staff Officer, Rear Admiral N. C. Ekwom, said Nigeria is working toward an integrated maritime security strategy that would fold the country’s various security agencies into one common operating picture. He pointed to the Navy’s Falcon Eye system and the Regional Maritime Awareness Capability System as the technological backbone of that effort, noting that artificial intelligence is increasingly being layered onto surveillance operations.
Mustapha’s team acknowledged a persistent integration problem: the Navy’s Maritime Command and Control Centre reserves roughly 15 seats for personnel from partner agencies, but most command centres nationwide still operate in isolation. He linked the gap to a wider unfamiliarity with the sector across government, describing it as “maritime blindness”, a failure, in his words, to recognise the maritime domain’s importance to national development.
It was retired Rear Admiral Olanrewaju Beckley, however, who delivered the panel’s sharpest message: that slow prosecutions, not weak detection, may be the Navy’s biggest handicap. Beckley ran through the familiar list of threats I including illegal fishing, illegal bunkering, kidnapping for ransom, illegal refineries, terrorism and smuggling, and said the Navy’s “detect, arrest and prosecute” model breaks down at the final stage. Suspects and their vessels can sit in detention for extended periods awaiting trial, he said, a delay that risks suspects walking free and undermines the deterrent effect of every arrest made at sea.
His prescription was the same one Nigerian naval officers have floated repeatedly over the past decade: dedicated maritime courts that could fast-track case determination and cut down on prolonged detention without trial. Beckley also called for heavier government investment in surveillance assets such as vessels, drones and manned aerial platforms, arguing that the size of Nigeria’s maritime estate demands a security budget to match.
Assistant Inspector-General of Police Okunade Ronke Nurat, represented by CSP Olalekan Faniyi, described the working relationship between the Marine Police and the Navy as cordial, with joint patrols proceeding without friction, though she conceded there was room for deeper collaboration. Other panellists urged that any security-first approach to the blue economy be matched with investment in the coastal and riverine communities that live alongside Nigeria’s waterways.
The session’s recommendations, taken together, called for tighter integration among maritime security agencies, wider surveillance deployment, closer Navy–Marine Police cooperation, more security-asset funding, specialised judicial mechanisms for maritime crimes, and stronger economic support for coastal communities.
Nigeria Watch
Beckley’s plea will sound familiar to anyone who has followed this file. The Navy has asked for special maritime courts under at least three different Chiefs of Naval Staff over the past decade — through a Senate committee proposal in 2016, a direct appeal from the naval leadership in 2021, and now this latest call in 2026 — with no legislation to show for it. NIMASA’s leadership has separately lobbied the judiciary through its annual Admiralty Law Seminar for Judges, seeking faster case turnaround for the same reason Beckley cited: arrests that don’t stick because prosecutions crawl.
What has changed since 2020 is the legal toolkit, not the court structure. The Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act gave prosecutors their first dedicated piracy statute and produced Nigeria’s first SPOMO conviction at the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt. But SPOMO cases still route through the same generalist Federal High Court dockets — carrying admiralty, commercial and constitutional matters alongside maritime crime — that Beckley says are the bottleneck. A special court, as envisaged, would need enabling legislation the National Assembly has never passed, whatever the number of naval appeals for it.
For operators represented by cooperatives like WABOTAN and ATBOWATON, the stakes in this debate cut both ways. Faster maritime prosecutions would, in principle, mean faster resolution for the vessels and crews the Navy detains, a genuine grievance among small-scale operators who say their boats and livelihoods can be tied up in custody for months over infractions far short of piracy or oil theft.
But any push to tighten enforcement and expand naval surveillance across the inland and coastal waterways will also be watched closely by the same informal operators, who have long argued that security crackdowns too often catch legitimate local transporters in the same net cast for pirates and illegal bunkerers. Whether the next iteration of this proposal survives the National Assembly, or joins its predecessors as a recommendation without a bill, will say much about how seriously Abuja is treating the justice half of its blue economy ambitions.
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