GEORGE TOWN, April 7 — The Penang Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) detained a tanker and a tugboat for conducting ship to ship (STS) oil transfer without permission at 0.16 nautical miles east of the waters near Persiaran Karpal Singh, yesterday.

Its director, Maritime Captain Abd Razak Mohamed said Penang MMEA which was carrying out a patrol detected a tanker, MT Mekar Jaya and a tugboat YKP Karishma huddled with each other in a suspicious manner at 2.10 pm.

"Upon inspection, the tanker MT Mekar Jaya carrying the Malaysian flag was found operated by eight crew members aged between 26 and 46 with proper travel documents.

"A check on the tugboat YKP Karishma flying the flag of Thailand was found operated by six crew comprising four Indonesians and two Thai nationals aged between 35 and 51, with legal travel documents, he said in a statement today.

He said the tanker and tugboat had committed a violation under the Merchant Shipping Ordinance 1952 for failing to inform the Marine Department director before conducting STS oil transfer and MMEA held the captains of the ship and tugboat for further investigation. — Bernama