The 15-year-old tanker Kalamos was awaiting fresh cargo from an oil terminal in Nigeria’s south eastern region.

The Malta-flagged vessel’s operated by ExxonMobil. Most of the crew are Greek.

Pirates boarded it in the Gulf of Guinea, which has overtaken the Horn of Africa as Africa’s epicentre for buccaneers.

In the first nine months last year the area recorded at least 33 incidents of piracy and armed robbery, according to the International Maritime Bureau .

It said the pirates operating off the coast of Nigeria, Togo and Benin are heavily armed and violent, and often hold crews hostage for several days.

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