http://www.tankershipping.com/news/...w-on-moving-vessels-easiest-targets_50933.htm
Gulf of Guinea piracy evolving, crew on moving vessels ‘easiest targets’
Tue 27 Feb 2018 by Jamey Bergman
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Piracy strategies in the Gulf of Guinea are shifting to focus on human crew (Photo by US Navy, Jason R Zalasky [public domain])
Piracy is becoming a more significant problem for vessels operating in the Gulf of Guinea in spite of a worldwide drop in piracy during 2017.
International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Assistant Director Cyrus Mody told Tanker Shipping and Trade that there have been 17 incidents reported in the region in the first two months of 2018, nearly half the 36 incidents reported to the group in the whole of 2017, with the majority occurring in the waters off Nigeria and Benin.
"We have on record 15 incidents between Nigeria and Benin, and four were in the Cotonou Anchorage," Mr Mody said.
Mr Mody explained "There is a huge underreporting from vessels in the Gulf of Guinea, and we would hope that we are seeing these higher numbers from increased repoting in the region. We always encourage masters and operators and owners to report these incidents as soon as possible. We always alert authorities to respond to reports of piracy, but reporting also helps other masters in the area to know where incidents are occurring."
Independent shipping brokerage Asket, which publishes its own daily security alerts for the shipping sector, said piracy strategies in the Gulf of Guinea are shifting to focus on human crew.
“We have certainly seen a change in tactics in the Gulf of Guinea over the past 12 months and it is likely that these will develop further throughout 2018,” Asket’s business and compliance director Emma Mitchell-Biggs told Tanker Shipping and Trade.
Ms Mitchell-Biggs said protection measures such as safe anchorages, escort vessels and co-ordinated response to incidents on the part of the Nigerian Navy had made ship-to-ship siphoning thefts more difficult for pirate gangs patrolling the region.
The downturn in product theft, she said, had resulted in an increase in attacks at sea aimed at capturing crew and ships to be held for ransom.
“Increase in protection around the ports and fields … means that the easiest targets are now attacks on vessels underway,” she said.
In the wider region, however, attacks on ships at anchor have seen an uptick. Recent high-profile incidents over a period of a few weeks in late January and early February 2018 saw two tanker vessels and their crews taken hostage off the coast of Nigerian neighbour Benin in the Gulf of Guinea.
"We’ve seen two hijackings so far this year, and this is something which we have not seen since 2011. In 2011, we had reports of around eight hijackings from around the Cotonou region," Mr Mody said.
Ms Mitchell-Biggs warned there was no reason to believe these types of attacks would stop.
“We have seen gangs who are boarding vessels at anchor – most notably in the Cotonou anchorage offshore Benin – where the vessel is sailed away from the coast with the intent to conduct short-term hijacks for kidnap and ransom," she said.
“There is no reason why this trend will not spread further west, for example in Abidjan anchorage [Ivory Coast] where several boardings were seen last year.”
Ships at anchorages can pose relatively easy targets for pirates operating in small, lightly armed and difficult to detect teams of one or two skiffs. These teams are capable of staying mostly hidden among similar small craft at anchor while looking for targets and disappearing quickly if discovered, she said.
According to Ms Mitchell-Biggs, preparation is key to avoiding this type of attack.
"Good planning and rehearsals for the whole crew, the use of intelligence and all round situational awareness including alert lookouts, the management of AIS, and use of radars tuned to pick up smaller targets," are some of the measures she suggested.
Ms Mitchell-Biggs also cited the fourth iteration of IMO’s Best Management Practices for Somali-based piracy as a starting point for preparing ships to resist attacks.
"Adapted BMP4 type measures are key to controlling access and ingress,” and, she said “a secure and equipped citadel has been proven to work time and again."
At least one tanker operator has responded to increased piracy in the region by implementing ship-hardening measures.
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http://delano.lu/d/detail/news/pirates-attack-tanker-flying-lux-flag/171195
Pirates attack tanker flying Lux flag
News • Current affairs • 27.02.2018 • Jess Bauldry
The St Marseille, pictured, was attacked by five armed pirates in the Bay of Cotonou in the Gulf of Guinea
Photo: ST Management
Two men were injured when the Luxembourg-registered tanker they were working on was hijacked by pirates earlier on Tuesday.
According to the Luxembourg government, which sent a press release on Tuesday afternoon, the St Marseille was attacked by five armed pirates in the Bay of Cotonou in the Gulf of Guinea.
Two Beninese guards were shot and injured during the take-over. With no cargo on board, the pirates eventually fled of their own accord, the government said. The two wounded guards were hospitalised and were said to be in a stable condition. No Luxembourgers were on the ship and all remaining crew were unharmed.
The St Marseille belongs to ST Management SAS. According to government figures, there were 222 vessels recorded in the Luxembourg Maritime Register in September 2012. Meanwhile, around 330 maritime companies are based in the grand duchy.
ST Management SAS • St Marseille • luxembourg • maritime • pirates • tanker
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/19-Oil-Tankers-Held-Hostage-Off-Yemeni-Coast.html
19 Oil Tankers Held Hostage Off Yemeni Coast
By Irina Slav - Apr 23, 2018, 11:00 AM CDT
The Yemeni Houthis have captured 19 oil tankers and are keeping them from entering the Hodeidah port, according to reports from Saudi media quoting the Kingdom’s ambassador in Yemen.
The ambassador suggested three possible reasons for the detention, including an attempt to extract money from the owners of the vessels, “the continued starvation of the Yemeni people”, and a plan to destroy the tankers, causing major environmental damage to the Red Sea.
However, the only media sources reporting the tanker seizure are Saudi sources and there has been no confirmation from an external source that the Houthis have indeed seized any tankers yet. No details have been disclosed as to the origin of the vessels, either.
According to Saudi Arabia, the Houthis—a Shiite militia backed by Iran—are holding the port of Hodeidah as “a tool of war”. The port is one of the largest in the war-torn country, and it is the destination for many oil tankers and humanitarian aid. It is also controlled by the Houthis unlike other large ports, which the Saudi-led coalition closed earlier, worsening the plight of starving Yemenis.
At the end of last year, the Houthis threatened that they would start attacking oil tankers and warships sailing under enemy flags if the Gulf coalition fighting it in the country does not reopen its ports. Since then, there have been multiple reports of Houthis strikes against Saudi targets, including civilian targets, but no real damage has been done.
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Related: Can Saudi Arabia Afford Its Megaprojects?
Even so, following the latest missile strike report, Human Rights Watch said that “Houthi forces in Yemen violated the laws of war by launching ballistic missiles indiscriminately at populated areas in Saudi Arabia on March 25, 2018.”
“But just as unlawful coalition airstrikes don’t justify the Houthi’s indiscriminate attacks, the Saudis can’t use Houthi rockets to justify impeding life-saving goods for Yemen’s civilian population,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said.
Yemen lies along one of the main global oil chokepoints in the Red Sea. Millions of barrels of crude oil pass Yemeni shores from the Suez Canal en route to Europe every day.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
Gulf of Guinea piracy evolving, crew on moving vessels ‘easiest targets’
Tue 27 Feb 2018 by Jamey Bergman
AddThis Sharing Buttons
Share to LinkedInShare to TwitterShare to Facebook4Share to Google+
Piracy is becoming a more significant problem for vessels operating in the Gulf of Guinea in spite of a worldwide drop in piracy during 2017.
International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Assistant Director Cyrus Mody told Tanker Shipping and Trade that there have been 17 incidents reported in the region in the first two months of 2018, nearly half the 36 incidents reported to the group in the whole of 2017, with the majority occurring in the waters off Nigeria and Benin.
"We have on record 15 incidents between Nigeria and Benin, and four were in the Cotonou Anchorage," Mr Mody said.
Mr Mody explained "There is a huge underreporting from vessels in the Gulf of Guinea, and we would hope that we are seeing these higher numbers from increased repoting in the region. We always encourage masters and operators and owners to report these incidents as soon as possible. We always alert authorities to respond to reports of piracy, but reporting also helps other masters in the area to know where incidents are occurring."
Independent shipping brokerage Asket, which publishes its own daily security alerts for the shipping sector, said piracy strategies in the Gulf of Guinea are shifting to focus on human crew.
“We have certainly seen a change in tactics in the Gulf of Guinea over the past 12 months and it is likely that these will develop further throughout 2018,” Asket’s business and compliance director Emma Mitchell-Biggs told Tanker Shipping and Trade.
Ms Mitchell-Biggs said protection measures such as safe anchorages, escort vessels and co-ordinated response to incidents on the part of the Nigerian Navy had made ship-to-ship siphoning thefts more difficult for pirate gangs patrolling the region.
The downturn in product theft, she said, had resulted in an increase in attacks at sea aimed at capturing crew and ships to be held for ransom.
“Increase in protection around the ports and fields … means that the easiest targets are now attacks on vessels underway,” she said.
In the wider region, however, attacks on ships at anchor have seen an uptick. Recent high-profile incidents over a period of a few weeks in late January and early February 2018 saw two tanker vessels and their crews taken hostage off the coast of Nigerian neighbour Benin in the Gulf of Guinea.
"We’ve seen two hijackings so far this year, and this is something which we have not seen since 2011. In 2011, we had reports of around eight hijackings from around the Cotonou region," Mr Mody said.
Ms Mitchell-Biggs warned there was no reason to believe these types of attacks would stop.
“We have seen gangs who are boarding vessels at anchor – most notably in the Cotonou anchorage offshore Benin – where the vessel is sailed away from the coast with the intent to conduct short-term hijacks for kidnap and ransom," she said.
“There is no reason why this trend will not spread further west, for example in Abidjan anchorage [Ivory Coast] where several boardings were seen last year.”
Ships at anchorages can pose relatively easy targets for pirates operating in small, lightly armed and difficult to detect teams of one or two skiffs. These teams are capable of staying mostly hidden among similar small craft at anchor while looking for targets and disappearing quickly if discovered, she said.
According to Ms Mitchell-Biggs, preparation is key to avoiding this type of attack.
"Good planning and rehearsals for the whole crew, the use of intelligence and all round situational awareness including alert lookouts, the management of AIS, and use of radars tuned to pick up smaller targets," are some of the measures she suggested.
Ms Mitchell-Biggs also cited the fourth iteration of IMO’s Best Management Practices for Somali-based piracy as a starting point for preparing ships to resist attacks.
"Adapted BMP4 type measures are key to controlling access and ingress,” and, she said “a secure and equipped citadel has been proven to work time and again."
At least one tanker operator has responded to increased piracy in the region by implementing ship-hardening measures.
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http://delano.lu/d/detail/news/pirates-attack-tanker-flying-lux-flag/171195
Pirates attack tanker flying Lux flag
News • Current affairs • 27.02.2018 • Jess Bauldry
The St Marseille, pictured, was attacked by five armed pirates in the Bay of Cotonou in the Gulf of Guinea
Photo: ST Management
Two men were injured when the Luxembourg-registered tanker they were working on was hijacked by pirates earlier on Tuesday.
According to the Luxembourg government, which sent a press release on Tuesday afternoon, the St Marseille was attacked by five armed pirates in the Bay of Cotonou in the Gulf of Guinea.
Two Beninese guards were shot and injured during the take-over. With no cargo on board, the pirates eventually fled of their own accord, the government said. The two wounded guards were hospitalised and were said to be in a stable condition. No Luxembourgers were on the ship and all remaining crew were unharmed.
The St Marseille belongs to ST Management SAS. According to government figures, there were 222 vessels recorded in the Luxembourg Maritime Register in September 2012. Meanwhile, around 330 maritime companies are based in the grand duchy.
ST Management SAS • St Marseille • luxembourg • maritime • pirates • tanker
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/19-Oil-Tankers-Held-Hostage-Off-Yemeni-Coast.html
19 Oil Tankers Held Hostage Off Yemeni Coast
By Irina Slav - Apr 23, 2018, 11:00 AM CDT
The Yemeni Houthis have captured 19 oil tankers and are keeping them from entering the Hodeidah port, according to reports from Saudi media quoting the Kingdom’s ambassador in Yemen.
The ambassador suggested three possible reasons for the detention, including an attempt to extract money from the owners of the vessels, “the continued starvation of the Yemeni people”, and a plan to destroy the tankers, causing major environmental damage to the Red Sea.
However, the only media sources reporting the tanker seizure are Saudi sources and there has been no confirmation from an external source that the Houthis have indeed seized any tankers yet. No details have been disclosed as to the origin of the vessels, either.
According to Saudi Arabia, the Houthis—a Shiite militia backed by Iran—are holding the port of Hodeidah as “a tool of war”. The port is one of the largest in the war-torn country, and it is the destination for many oil tankers and humanitarian aid. It is also controlled by the Houthis unlike other large ports, which the Saudi-led coalition closed earlier, worsening the plight of starving Yemenis.
At the end of last year, the Houthis threatened that they would start attacking oil tankers and warships sailing under enemy flags if the Gulf coalition fighting it in the country does not reopen its ports. Since then, there have been multiple reports of Houthis strikes against Saudi targets, including civilian targets, but no real damage has been done.
Join the world's largest energy community
with over 10,000+ members
Learn, Share, and Discuss on the OilPrice Community
Related: Can Saudi Arabia Afford Its Megaprojects?
Even so, following the latest missile strike report, Human Rights Watch said that “Houthi forces in Yemen violated the laws of war by launching ballistic missiles indiscriminately at populated areas in Saudi Arabia on March 25, 2018.”
“But just as unlawful coalition airstrikes don’t justify the Houthi’s indiscriminate attacks, the Saudis can’t use Houthi rockets to justify impeding life-saving goods for Yemen’s civilian population,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said.
Yemen lies along one of the main global oil chokepoints in the Red Sea. Millions of barrels of crude oil pass Yemeni shores from the Suez Canal en route to Europe every day.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
