Case Studies
Navy Stops 2 Million Liters of Smuggled Oil
A Case Study
Nigerian authorities used Windward’s Maritime AI™ platform for a major bust.
This is Sweet Miri, a 62-meter bunkering tanker vessel sailing under Panama’s flag.
The vessel departed from the Tema port in Ghana in February 2022, where it had been docked for 18 months. The vessel changed its name from Mt Ramus to Sweet Miri during its voyage and shortly after entered Nigerian territorial waters for the first time. It docked at Bonny Port.
The vessel stopped transmitting its AIS signal for 14 days after leaving the port. Upon resuming transmission, on March 9, Sweet Miri sailed towards Tema port in Ghana, remaining there until October 2022.
On July 19, 2023, Sweet Miri started another three-month dark activity two nautical miles from the Bonny port, Nigeria, followed by another 18 days of dark activity near the Bonny port On October 11.
The ship then sailed near the Bonny port waiting area and the Bonny offshore terminal for a week, with drifting and uneconomical behavior, without declaring any new destinations, draft changes, or other updates.
Despite switching off its automatic identification system (AIS) to avoid detection, the Nigerian navy located the vessel about 174 nautical miles (nm) from Nigeria’s coast. Its transmission was turned off and Sweet Miri was en route to Benin, with nearly two million liters of stolen crude oil on board!