Oil Tankers Run Gauntlet in Nigeria’s ‘Pirate Alley’

By Libby George

LONDON, Feb 5 (Reuters) – A pirate assault that killed a supertanker crewman off the coast of Nigeria this week has highlighted a rising menace off oil-rich West Africa, as vessels carrying hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude traverse a area that has change into often known as “pirate alley”.

The 2 million barrel Kalamos Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) was heading to Nigeria’s predominant oil terminal when it was attacked late on Monday, leaving the ship’s Greek deputy captain useless and three crew members taken hostage.

Security specialists say the waters off Nigeria are actually the deadliest on earth, surpassing Somalia on Africa’s east coast, which gained notoriety resulting from months-long hijackings, high-cost ransoms, and U.S.-led rescue missions such because the one which impressed Hollywood film “Captain Phillips”.

“It’s referred to as pirate alley – kidnap alley,” stated Ken Johnson, regional analyst with Dryad Maritime, referring to the stretch of West African coast from the Gulf of Guinea off Nigeria to as far south as Angola’s capital Luanda.

Johnson, who gives operations and intelligence recommendation to the transport trade, stated there was one other lethal assault on a ship within the area final month when pirates killed a Nigerian naval seaman aboard the oil help vessel MV Jascon.

Another assault final 12 months on an oil merchandise tanker, the SP Brussels, killed one crew member, Johnson stated.

Neither Indian refiner Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), which chartered the Kalamos tanker that was attacked this week, nor the supervisor of the vessel, Greek transport agency Aeolos Management, returned requires remark.

Cyrus Mody, assistant director of the piracy-tracking International Maritime Bureau stated the waters off Nigeria are actually the deadliest on the earth “by any length”, regardless of consideration nonetheless targeted on Somalia and the Gulf of Aden.

“(The Gulf of Guinea) is not perceived as bad as it is,” Mody stated.

Mody stated incidents within the area have been massively underreported resulting from worry of additional assaults, issues over insurance coverage or a perception that data on vessels is delicate or proprietary.

Oil tankers make comparatively simple targets for Nigerian-based pirates who normally need hostages to ransom, however may even promote stolen gas.

Security specialists say the pirates have emerged from militant teams in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta, such because the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).

These teams have lengthy focused oil infrastructure and overseas firms within the area, arguing the Niger Delta has been left impoverished regardless of manufacturing of virtually 2 million barrels of oil per day in Nigeria.

The scenario is additional sophisticated by the federal government’s ban on overseas armed guards in its waters – a technique that has been used to discourage pirates off Somalia and Yemen.

Security specialists stated most firms know the dangers within the area properly.

“It hasn’t stopped or slowed down trading,” stated Johnson at Dryad.

The hazard is already priced into premiums that insurers cost for coming into the area, stated Dominic Enderby, marine hull observe chief for Marsh, a world insurance coverage dealer.

While prices varies extensively, the premium is usually “a few thousand dollars” per voyage – not sufficient to extend prices considerably for a tanker that will carry greater than $100 million value of crude.

“It’s not going to change the price of our oil,” Enderby stated.

“These attacks are part and parcel of operating in this part of the world.” (Reporting By Libby George; Additional reporting by Aman Shah in Mumbai and David Sheppard in London, enhancing by David Evans)