Reports are coming in that a second oil tanker has been hijacked by suspected Somali pirates in the space of 48 hours, this time off the coast of Oman.
The Greek-flagged VLCC, Irene SL owned by First Navigation Special Maritime Enterprises has 25 crew members on board and was travelling from Kuwait towards the US with 2 million barrels of oil on board (estimated at a price of around US$200 million). News of this latest hijacking incident is likely to cause alarm amongst the energy industry and shipping community.
On early Tuesday, the Malaysia-bound Italian oil tanker MV Savina Caylyn was captured by Somali pirates deep into the Indian Ocean and in mid January the South Korean chemical freighter, Samho Jewelry, travelling from the UAE to Sri Lanka was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea, some 310 nautical miles off Oman.
It was successfully released along with its 21 crew members, about five days later by South Korean commandos travelling on a specially-dispatched South Korean warship. The operation resulted in the killing of eight of the 13 Somali pirates on board.
Last year saw the release of VLCC the Samho Jewelry’s sister ship Samho Dream for a reported settlement of $9.5 million. Pirates are not likely to set out specifically in search of tankers (all vessel types will be at risk of being targeted) but attacks against tankers may now be more determined and more ferocious, and pirates may be more intent on using firearms and RPGs to intimidate crewmembers during an assault.
Security firm AKE which issued the alert says that this will bring a greater risk of harm and vessel damage, so shipping firms managing tankers are advised to ensure that their crewmembers are briefed and trained and that vessel hardening techniques are in place, particularly when transiting high risk areas.
The last two months have seen an increase in attacks off the coast of Oman and the Gulf of Oman should be considered an area of potential risk, AKE stated.
Pirates are expected to concentrate their activity in waters closer to Somalia over the course of February. Weather conditions have deteriorated in the wider Indian Ocean and pirates appear to have temporarily withdrawn from waters off the coasts of Mozambique, Tanzania and southern India. However, the increased use of motherships means that pirates are much more able to overcome poor weather conditions in order to conduct attacks.
Somali pirates were first sighted off the Omani coast in early 2009. This is a critical waterway serving the energy and commodity import markets of the Persian Gulf. Somali pirates are not likely to exert as much of a stranglehold over the area as in the Gulf of Aden but there is little in the way of an international naval presence in the area.
The security firm warned that vessels transiting the region should implement safety measures that make them as self-sufficient as possible.
