SECURITY FOCUS

Oil, toil and

Piracy is back, but not in the traditional sense. Swashbuckling Blackbeards brandishing cutlasses
have been superseded by ruthless, money-hungry Somali gangs armed with automatic weapons,
global positioning systems and satellite phones. With supertankers seen as a prize catch among
new-age pirates, can the oil industry ward off potentially deadly and costly attacks or is it merely
a sitting duck? By Julian Rogers

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 I
n early January of this year a bright red parcel attached to
a small parachute glided gently toward the deck of a Saudi
supertanker 800 kilometres off the Kenyan coast. Onboard
the 330-metre long Sirius Star was a 23-man crew, a gang of
armed Somali pirates and two million barrels of oil – a quar-
ter of Saudi Arabia’s daily output. Inside the package was
believed to be US$3 million in high denomination bills. Oil giant Saudi
Aramco is thought to have paid the ransom to release the supertanker,
owned by its shipping arm, and its black gold, bringing an end to a
terrifying two-month ordeal for the hostages in what was the world’s
biggest ship hijacking. The pirates had demanded US$25 million but
eventually settled for a fraction of this, although US$3 million isn’t too
bad a pay packet for two months’ ‘work’ in a country as poor and war-
ravaged as Somalia.
The hijacking of Sirius Star was the sea bandits’ biggest booty to
date and there is a real fear that other fully-laden supertankers could be
snared by the pirates in future attacks. Indeed, most attacks are directed
at merchant ships connected in some way to the oil industry. Recently,
however, annual monsoons have hit the region, curtailing the pirates’
ability to ply their illegal trade, and ship owners are on tenterhooks
amid the calm before the real storm, so to speak. “The whole of the in-
dustry is holding its breath waiting for the wind to die down,” warns
Nick Davis, a former British army pilot and Chairman of the Merchant
Maritime Warfare Centre (MMWC) – a not-for-profit organisation ad-
dressing ship security. “Between late August and December we will see
what happens, because we don’t know whether there will be this eerie
quiet where nothing or just one or two gets hijacked, or whether we will
have three or four ships a week taken.”
Pirates.indd 39
The lion’s share of attacks have occurred in the Gulf of Aden off
the Somali coast – one of the world’s most important shipping lanes
with 20,000 vessels passing through annually. There are also 2.8 mil-
lion square kilometres of water in this region alone, meaning shipping
companies and their crews have the daunting prospect of trying to
react to or predict where and when the pirates strike next. Of course,
with the Sirius Star ransom being paid so publicly there is the obvious
concern that handing the pirates millions of dollars to relinquish con-
trol of a vessel will fuel more attacks and even bigger wallet-busting
ransoms. Other young men will see the huge money to be made, round
up a gang, arm themselves to the teeth and jump in a boat. Kenya’s
foreign minister claimed that up until November 2008 the pirates had
received over US$150 million, which can then be ploughed back into
purchasing faster boats and increased hardware.
“The big ransom payments have fuelled attacks – there isn’t any
real doubt about that,” suggests Roger Middleton, Consultant for the
Africa Programme at Chatham House – formerly the Royal Institute of
International Aff airs. “As ransoms go up it becomes a more attractive
business for people, but it is a very difficult position for ship owners
to be in because who wants to be the fi rst not to pay a ransom, which
impacts on the safety of your crew?” Likewise, Davis is of the opin-
ion that the pay-off s are spiralling out of control. “The pirates keep
pushing, pushing and pushing for as much as they can get and they
are quite happy to delay and start again. The industry, the insurance
companies and negotiation teams are letting the ransoms get out of
Pay day: Pirates secure their
biggest booty to date off the
Kenyan coast in January
www.ngoilgasmena.com 39
6/8/09 08:28:13
 ali
A patient game: Pirates lie in wait The Somtches
t stre
coas
hand, which is making the situation quite nasty because 3000Ke HM
orn
their vessels thousands of kilometres further
th
the bigger the ransoms, the more people that want to get
aroundrica and is via South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. On
of A f y
est of aen
involved. And there is no shortage of manpower for them t
top of this, insurance costs have soared by as
th e lo n g
to send out and there can never be enough warships to ef-
on th m
much as 100 percent. However, there are more
fectively prevent it.” countryinent. tha
than a dozen naval forces, as part of the multi-
cont natio
national coalition offensive (Combined Task Force
Numbers game 150), flexing
ex their military muscle and patrolling the
According to the International Chamber of Commerce’s Interna- Gulf of Aden in a bid to thwart the pirates. However, this
tional Maritime Bureau (IMB), the number of attacks so far this year off asymmetrical warfare has forced the pirates to scour for victims in less
Somalia has already surpassed the 2008 total. Last year witnessed 111 policed waters, namely the western Indian Ocean.
incidents, with 42 vessels hijacked. Up until mid-May of this year 29 suc- If they can pass under the radar of the multinational naval armada
cessful hijackings were recorded from 114 attempted attacks. And while the pirates typically approach a target by speedboat or skiff (a shallow,
a total of 815 crew members were taken hostage in 2008, this figure stood fast boat), fi ring on the ship until the captain submits and allows them
at 478 by the middle of May this year. “These guys have found a busi- to board by means of grapple hooks and rope ladders. Some pirate gangs
ness model that makes a lot more money than
their traditional fishing industry, and I mean a
lot,” remarks Jeroen Meijer, a security consultant
“Somalia is a completely failed state with no
for threat and safety advisors Control Risks and political structure to speak of and there is no law
former officer in the Royal Netherlands Navy.
“Keeping that business model intact is crucial,
enforcement capability so these gangs operate
so they constantly adapt their modus operandi. with total impunity”
We saw them operating in the Gulf of Aden, off
the coast of Mogadishu [Somalia’s capital] and we Jeroen Meijer, Control Risks
have seen them going into the Red Sea and Omani
waters. So they are constantly adapting where they operate to minimise are particularly well-equipped for the job in hand, says Middleton. “They
the threat to their operations.” are generally armed with AK47s, and sometimes RPGs (rocket-propelled
A knock-on effect of the piracy has been a sharp rise in shipping grenades), while their boats generally have outboard Yamaha engines
costs as some shipping firms choose to avoid the Suez Canal and navigate and they may have GPS and satellite phones.”

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Pirates.indd 40 5/8/09 15:13:49

 Where the pirates have struck in 2008/09

Yeman
Sirius Star
Gulf of
aden

ETHIOPIA

indian
ocean
KENYA

2008 attacks
2009 attacks
0 500 1000
KM

f IGHTING BACK 2

How ship owners can protect their cargo and crews

1
One deterrent is a long range acoustic device (LRAD), which is simply a
satellite dish hooked up to a humble MP3 player. The LRAD, which has a
range of around 1000 metres, fires out high-pitched messages or sirens
to warn pirates that they have been spotted. In fact, this piece of kit can
reach excruciatingly painful levels if the pirates get too close.
1

2
ing
More simple but effective measures include attachingngg
ptts to
barbed wire to the boat to hamper pirates’ attempts t
clamber aboard. Some vessels are also fitted with p
poo erful
ow
powerful
hoses used for blasting anyone who gets anywhere near,
nea ar,
but some ship owners have taken a more hard line approach by
providing machine guns.

Aus
Austri
Austrian company Schiebel has developed an unmanned helicopter 4

3
tted with
fitted w advanced sensors to alert crews of advancing maritime
ga gs.
gangs. s The three-metre long Camcopter S-100 can be flown by remote
on ntro
nt
trrol
control o or by pre-programmed GPS waypoints. This ‘eye in the sky’ can
flyy u
fl up to 120 knots powered by a 55hp rotary engine.

4
The most effective and practical measure, maritime me experts suggest,
sugge is
hip’s
p’s ladder
to sail at a speed exceeding 25 knots, pull up the ship’s dde and
d have
ha
hav
a
a high freeboard. 3

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Pirates.indd Sec1:42 6/8/09 08:28:16

 In a similar fashion to how burglars
seek to target the house on the street with
the weakest security, the sea bandits go after
the ships that are easiest to board and take
control. Those vessels capable of 25 knots are
generally too fast for the pirates but boats sail-
ing at around 14 knots and with a freeboard
five metres or less in height are deemed easy
prey. Ship owners are doing their best to ward
off potential attacks by installing barbed wire
and firing onboard water canons should the
assailants venture too close, while deck pa-
trols and ‘lookouts’ have also been ramped
up. “You only have a short time to prevent
these pirates from boarding and taking con-
trol of the ships,” explains Dr Mustafa Alani,
Director of the Terrorism and Security de-
partment at the Dubai-based Gulf Research
Centre. “Once they have control then you Capture and arrest is an occupational hazard for the pirates
have hostages and you have to deal with the
situation completely differently.” Dr Alani argues that ship owners either A continuing lawless atmosphere in the country has magnified the
need to station troops onboard or you allow the civilian crew to be armed problem. “Somalia being a lawless state with a free and open coastline
and trained in how to repel attackers. that no one is able and willing to defend is 100 percent the reason why
“However, there is always this giant ‘but’,” says Davis, “You are deal- the pirates can get away with it,” Davis notes. Th is sentiment is echoed by
ing with intelligent opponents who have figured out a number of ways Meijer: “Somalia is a completely failed state with no political structure
in which they can very successfully board a vessel.” Davis says the crews to speak of and there is no law enforcement capability so these gangs
who wind up getting hijacked invariably have little or no understanding operate with total impunity. Those who live on the coast see the wealth
of the threats and have been given no training in how to defend their ves- of the world sailing by everyday, so in an extremely benign maritime
sels. However, there are certain measures crews can take to make it nigh environment where you can operate with a small boat for very little cost
on impossible for pirates to get on board, he reveals [see opposite]. He is and together with a Kalashnikov and an RPG, you are able to hijack these
also concerned with the fact that ship owners are riches on your doorstep.”

“You are dealing with

deploying a mishmash of anti-piracy measures It also appears that money is the sole
instead of adopting a standardised approach. “We factor behind the pirates’ determina-
have such a divide across the world,” he notes. intelligent opponents tion, with no link uncovered between

who have figured out a

“For instance, the Americans are putting arms the attacks and organised terrorism, say
on everything, which is not very helpful and will the experts. “There is absolutely none,”
lead to all sorts of problems because the ultimate number of ways in which reveals Dr Alani. “On the contrary, we

they can very successfully

authority on that ship should be the master. He
is still liable, irrespective of who pulls the trigger
and I know a lot of masters who are very uncom- board a vessel”
fortable with the arms issue and civilian guards.”
Nick Davis, MMWC
Root causes
So can piracy be stopped on land? Experts
are in agreement that the failed state of Somalia
is a perfect breeding ground for piracy, while a lack of law means the pi-
rates can hijack vessels with impunity. Piracy first became a problem in
the region at the outbreak of Somalia’s civil war in the early 1990s, when
the government was overthrown. As the war raged, and with no Somali
coastguard, foreign fishermen were accused of plundering the country’s
fish stocks, so Somalis took to the seas to protect their livelihoods. It was
then that they realised there was some serious money to be made from
hijacking ships and demanding ransoms.
get information that the pirates fear
the extreme Islamists who see them as
thieves.” Indeed, there is a preconcep-
tion that most Somalis support the pirate
gangs, but being a majority Muslim state,
most of the population are vehemently
opposed to theft and hijackings. On the
other hand, chunks of the bandits’ ill-
gotten gains are pumped back into the local economy which rejuvenates
poor villages, although a flipside of this cash injection is rising inflation
for ordinary Somalis. All in all, this situation won’t be changing very soon
unless action is taken on land in Somalia to stamp out this menace. And
with the monsoon weather subsiding soon, the coming months will be an
extremely testing time for the maritime industry. “Th roughout history
piracy has been an issue and it will never be completely stamped out – this
is an illusion,” states a philosophical Meijer. „

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