The Greek owner of an oil tanker that vanished off the coast of Angola said pirates hijacked the vessel and stole much of its cargo. Athens-based Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd., said late Sunday in a statement that it had re-established contact with the 75,000-tonne MT Kerala. The Liberian-flagged ship vanished Jan. 18, raising concerns in the industry that piracy in West Africa is spreading south from the Gulf of Guinea toward Nigeria, the continent’s biggest oil producer. The vessel was on charter to Angolan state oil firm Sonangol. “Pirates hijacked the vessel offshore Angola and stole a large quantity of cargo by ship-to-ship transfer. The pirates have now disembarked,” the statement said, adding that the ship’s 27-member crew was safe. Angola’s navy has said the hijacking was staged. The tanker “cut off its communication system while at the entrance of the Luanda bay and followed a tugboat to Nigeria,” […]