The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) on Monday said it found it unfair and unacceptable for a section of the public and the media, to impute the disappearance of MV Astoria I, the runaway oil tanker, to the Ghana Navy's and security agencies inability to provide security for the vessel or to police Ghanaian waters.

It said the Ghana Navy, took all the necessary action within her capability to search for the vessel and would continue to perform her primary role of regular patrols involving surveillance around the areas of economic activity, to ensure safety and freedom from other vessels, poachers or saboteurs.

This was contained in statement issued in Accra by the Directorate of

Public Relations (DPR) of the GAF, to correct the impression by a section of the media and callers to phone-in programmes on radio suggesting that the Ghana Navy did not perform its job professionally and trying to drag its name in the mud.

The statement said at about 2215 hours of March 28, 2003, the Navy received information through a phone call from an official of the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) about the unauthorized sailing of the oil storage vessel with about 70,000 metric tones of oil from the Saltpond Oil Fields. It said there was another phone call at about 2325 hours of the same day from the Deputy Managing Director of the GNPC informing the Navy of the incident. Both callers estimated that the ship had sailed "30 minutes ago" and was heading eastwards.

Following the notification, the Ghana Navy's GNS BONSU sailed about an hour from Sekondi on receipt of the initial report and was directed to sail eastwards and to search for the vessel between Saltpond oil Rig and the eastern border. It said a team of armed Naval personnel from the Tema Naval Base also joined a Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority (GPHA) speedboat, which sailed from Tema at about midnight to intercept the missing vessel. The statement said another group of Naval personnel at Jewu Wharf was also tasked to mount surveillance along the coast in case of a deception plan.

The Search, the statement said, was further reinforced by another Naval vessel GNS HANSEN, which sailed in the early hours of March 30, 2003 and headed eastwards to join GNS BONSU and other units from the Tema Naval Base.

In view of the large expanse of the country's territorial waters, and the few ships available, the assistance of the Ghana Air force was sought for aerial surveillance. The search continued until 1800 hours on Sunday March 30, 2003 when it was considered futile and was called off, said the statement, adding that all operational vessels available at the time of the incident were deployed for the search supported by the Air force.

It said in view of the sequence of events that took place, it was interesting to note that the information received from the GNPC officials indicated that the vessel sailed "30 minutes ago" irrespective of when they got through with their call to the Navy. The statement said the Deputy Managing Director of GNPC confirmed that there was no radio communication between the oil rig and the shore authorities and that he was informed of the sailing of the vessel by a crew member on the rig, who had to sail to Cape Coast by a canoe before making a phone call to him in Accra.

It said as professional seafarers, and considering the distance of 18 nautical miles from the rig to the shore, it could have taken anything between three to five hours to accomplish with a canoe and that the time given to the Navy could not best be described as the time the ship set sail.

The statement said it was clear that the Ghana Navy and the Air Force performed their roles professionally in their search to locate MV Astoria I based on the information received from the GNPC but that the information was delayed and not received in good time to enable the Navy take necessary action.

It emphasized that Ghana Navy ships undertake routine patrols around the rig according to her standing operating procedures and carries out regular patrols throughout the length and breadth of Ghana's territorial waters and her exclusive economic zone, an area of 64,000 square nautical miles.

It said in the Navy's assessment, the vessel might have sailed much earlier than the time given by the GNPC to the Navy and security agencies thus making it futile to intercept the vessel in the country's territorial waters. It said that the GNPC failed to take the necessary security precautions, which should have prevented the incident from taking place.

The statement said the impression created by a section of the media that the Navy did not have a standby vessel was completely wrong.