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Pirates!, modern day pirates

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seWer Rat	Posted: Nov 20 2009, 06:14 AM
amateur sewer cleaner Group: Analysts Posts: 1,030 Member No.: 87 Joined: 19-August 04	Yeah, but the successful deterrence of Maersk Alabama with its armed guards could open the eyes of other ship operators.

MSantor

Posted: Dec 1 2009, 01:01 AM

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Damn pirate scum have seized another oil tanker.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091130/ap_on_bi_ge/piracy

QUOTE

NAIROBI, Kenya � Somali pirates seized a tanker carrying more than $20 million of crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the United States in the increasingly dangerous waters off East Africa, an official said Monday, an attack that could pose a huge environmental or security threat.
The Greece-flagged Maran Centaurus was hijacked Sunday about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) off the coast of Somalia, said Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force. Harbour said it originated from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and was destined for the United States. The ship has 28 crew members on board, he said.

The shipping intelligence company Lloyd's List said the Maran Centaurus is a "very large crude carrier, with a capacity of over 300,000 tons."

Stavros Hadzigrigoris from the ship's owners, Maran Tankers Management, said the tanker was carrying around 275,000 metric tons of crude. At an average price of around $75 a barrel, the cargo is worth more than $20 million. Hadzigrigoris declined to say who owned the oil.

Pirates have increased attacks on vessels off East Africa for the millions in ransom that can be had. Though pirates have successfully hijacked dozens of vessels the last several years, Sunday's attack appears to be only the second ever on an oil tanker.

The hijacking of a tanker increases worries that the vessel could crash, be run aground or be involved in a firefight, said Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at London-based think tank Chatham House.

Pirates typically use guns and rocket-propelled grenades in their attacks, and some vessels now carry private security guards, but Middleton said oil tankers do not.

"You're sitting on a huge ship filled with flammable liquid. You don't want somebody with a gun on top of that," Middleton said. "Financially it's a very costly exercise because the value of oil is so volatile. If it is held for a long time and the price of oil drops, they could lost millions of dollars."

In November 2008, pirates hijacked the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star, which held 2 million barrels of oil valued at about $100 million. The tanker was released last January for a reported $3 million ransom after a two-month drama that helped galvanize international efforts to fight piracy off Africa's coast.

Somali pirates are a separate group of criminals from the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic militants who control large areas of southern Somalia, but anytime pirates hold such valuable and explosive cargo it raises international concerns.

In late 2007, pirates hijacked a chemical tanker carrying up to 10,000 tons of highly explosive benzene. Initially, American intelligence agents worried terrorists from Somalia's Islamic extremist insurgency could be involved, and might try to crash the boat into an offshore oil platform or use it as a gigantic bomb.

When the Japanese vessel was towed back into Somali waters and ransom demanded, the coalition was relieved to realize it was just another pirate attack.

Somalia's lawless 1,880-mile (3,000-kilometer) coastline provides a perfect haven for pirates to prey on ships heading for the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping routes. The impoverished Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government for a generation and the weak U.N.-backed administration is too busy fighting the Islamist insurgency to arrest pirates.

Pirates now hold about a dozen vessels hostage and more than 200 crew members. The Maran Centaurus had 28 crew aboard � 16 Filipinos, nine Greeks, two Ukrainians and one Romanian, Harbour said.

Middleton said pirate demands and negotiations are becoming more complex.

"They still want the money but they have also asked for the release of imprisoned comrades," he said. "That demand is an extra bargaining tool they can use to add extra layers to their negotiating position."

Piracy has increased despite an increased presence by international navies patrolling the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden. The U.S. this fall began flying sophisticated drones over East African waters as part of the fight against piracy.

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Associated Press Writers Katharine Houreld and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece contributed to this report.

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saver111	Posted: Dec 1 2009, 09:19 PM
PDFF Moderator Group: PDFF ModGroup Posts: 5,763 Member No.: 408 Joined: 23-March 05	EU: Hijacked oil tanker was outside corridor AP Greek-flagged Maran Centaurus oil tanker is pictured in this undated handout photo. Somali pirates have seized the Maran Centaurus near the Seychelles, more than 700 miles off the coast of Somalia, Greece's coastguard said on November 30, 2009. REUTERS/Maran Tankers Management/Handout By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer Jason Straziuso, Associated Press Writer � 13 mins ago NAIROBI, Kenya � An oil tanker bound for the United States that was hijacked by Somali pirates was traveling outside a recommended maritime corridor, the commander of the EU Naval Force said Tuesday. The Greek-flagged tanker Maran Centaurus was carrying more than $20 million of crude oil when pirates captured it Sunday. Rear Adm. Peter Hudson said Tuesday he does not advise vessels to have armed guards on board, and that flammable cargo and firearms don't mix. Hudson also said the fact that pirates are now attacking ships 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) off the Somali coast presents a large challenge and that the EU force will never fully secure such a large area of ocean. Twenty percent of global shipping � including 8 percent of global oil shipments � is funneled into the narrow, pirate-infested Gulf of Aden that leads through the Red Sea to the Suez Canal. The route is bordered on one side by the failed state of Somalia and on the other by the increasingly unstable country of Yemen. Somalia's lawless 1,880-mile coastline has become a pirate haven. The impoverished Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government for a generation and the weak U.N.-backed administration is too busy fighting an Islamist insurgency to go after pirates. Pirates now hold about a dozen vessels hostage and more than 200 crew members. The Maran Centaurus is carrying around 275,000 metric tons of crude, said Stavros Hadzigrigoris, from the ship's owners Maran Tankers Management. At current market rates the oil would be worth just over $20 million. The ship has 9 Greeks, 16 Filipinos, 2 Ukrainians, and a Romanian aboard. Granberg said the ship's owner reported the crew was not injured in the attack. The vessel is only the second oil tanker captured by Somali pirates. The Saudi-owned Sirius Star was hijacked a year ago, leading to heightened international efforts to fight piracy off the Horn of Africa. That hijacking ended with a $3 million ransom payment. The ship held 2 million barrels of oil valued at about $100 million and was released last January. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/piracy -------------------- "In the interest of National Defense... "Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country!"

saver111	Posted: Dec 1 2009, 09:20 PM
PDFF Moderator Group: PDFF ModGroup Posts: 5,763 Member No.: 408 Joined: 23-March 05	In this image made available by NATO in London, Monday Nov. 30, 2009, Portuguese Naval Marines from the frigate 'Alvares Cabral', guard a group of Somali pirates, during a joint operation with Seychelles and EU forces in the Somali Basin, off the Seychelles, Sunday Nov. 29, 2009, against a pirate group that had attacked the-Spanish flagged fishing vessel 'Ortube Berria'. Involved on the operation, besides the NATO flagship, were the Seychelles Patrol Boat 'Andromache' and two Maritime Patrol Aircraft's from the EU Task-Force also operating in the area on counter-piracy mission. The aircrafts detected and tracked the pirate attacking group composed by a mother-ship and two smaller attack skiffs. AP Photo/Carlos Dias, NATO, ho) (AP Photo/Carlos Dias, NATO, ho) -------------------- "In the interest of National Defense... "Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country!"

MSantor

Posted: Dec 2 2009, 05:11 AM

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Duh. One doesn't need to be an Admiral to see this point:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34224712/ns/world_news-africa/

QUOTE

NAIROBI, Kenya - International naval forces will never be able to completely secure the vast area of ocean where Somali pirates are hijacking ships off East Africa, the commander of the EU Naval Force's counter-piracy efforts said Tuesday.

In the latest attack, pirates captured the Greek-flagged tanker Maran Centaurus on Sunday while it was carrying 275,000 metric tons of crude oil, the ship's owners said. That is equivalent to about 2 million barrels of oil worth roughly $150 million, said Ben Cahill, head of the Petroleum Risk Manager service at PFC Energy.

The naval commander said the Maran Centaurus was traveling east of an area that the EU Naval Force advises tankers to steer clear of, so that it wouldn't necessarily have expected to have been attacked. The Associated Press earlier incorrectly quoted Rear Adm. Peter Hudson's comments to mean that the ship was traveling outside a recommended maritime corridor.

"The news of a few days ago of a 300,000-ton tanker being seized is illustrative of the problems in protecting and policing an area of the world's oceans that amounts to an area of about 1 million square miles," said Hudson, the commander of the EU Naval Force's counter-piracy operations.

Hudson also said the fact that pirates are now attacking ships as far as 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) off the Somali coast presents a large challenge and that the EU force will never fully secure such a large area. The EU Naval Force's strategy in the smaller Gulf of Aden is to lengthen the amount of time it takes pirates to get on board so that a warship or helicopter can be dispatched to the scene.

"The difficulties in an area as large as it is in the Indian Ocean with the short number of assets that we have is that ... the pirate can keep going and keep going and keep going until it's successful in getting on board, because there's nothing there to stop it," he said.

Tempting targets
Hudson said oil tankers like the Maran Centaurus can be tempting targets.

"She's a big ol' girl, almost a quarter million tons. They're not speedy, they sit low in the water ... so a determined pirate like this one can be successful," Hudson said in Kenya during an extended trip to East Africa.

As pirate activity has increased off East Africa, some ships have begun carrying armed guards. The EU Naval Force said Tuesday that a Spanish fishing vessel with a private security team on board fired warning shots at pirates during an attack Sunday, fending off the hijack attempt.

However, fuel tankers like the Maran Centaurus do not have armed security because of how flammable the cargo is, a determination Hudson said he agrees with.

"At the moment the consensus is, and I think quite rightly, let's be very wary before we bring military groups, armed guards, civilian guards onto fuel tankers full of fuel and gas," he said.

Bigger tankers like the Maran Centaurus are too large to use the Suez Canal and must sail south around Africa to Europe or the U.S., said Samuel Ciszuk, an analyst for IHS Global Insight. But if attacks increase, those tankers will have to steer clear of a large part of the northwest Indian Ocean and southwest Arabian Sea, adding days to the trip.

The operating costs will then rise, not only for fuel and wages for the crew but insurance premiums, Ciszuk said.

Pirate haven
Somalia's lawless 1,880-mile coastline has become a pirate haven. The impoverished Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government for a generation and the weak U.N.-backed administration is too busy fighting an Islamist insurgency to go after pirates. Pirates now hold about a dozen vessels hostage and more than 200 crew members.

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MSantor

Posted: Dec 2 2009, 05:27 AM

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And this should show those pirate scum.

QUOTE

By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 12/1/2009

Pirate attack repelled off Oman
The crew of a Greek oil tanker on Tuesday used water hoses and flares to repel a dawn attack by pirates off Oman, Greek habour police said.

The crew of a Greek oil tanker on Tuesday used water hoses and flares to repel a dawn attack by pirates off Oman, Greek habour police said.
The ship, the Sikinos, owned by the Greek-based company Cycladic Maritime and which has a crew made up of eight Greeks and 16 Filipinos, was en route to China, said a company official, adding that the attackers were "probably Somalian."

The attack proved that Somalian pirate gangs were increasingly "striking further and further from their bases," the official said.

The pirates tried to board the vessel about 550 nautical miles southeast of Oman, according to Greek police.

On Sunday, Somalian pirates seized the Greek super-tanker Maran Centaurus along with 28 crew members. On Monday it was reported to be headed for the lawless Horn of Africa state's coast.

The ship with a crew of nine Greeks, 16 Filipinos, two Ukrainians and a Romanian, was the second super-size tanker to be captured this year.

This post has been edited by MSantor on Dec 2 2009, 05:31 AM

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MSantor

Posted: Dec 3 2009, 04:13 AM

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The Portuguese doing their part against piracy:

QUOTE

Portuguese navy thwarts Somali pirate attack
AFP
Fri, Nov 20, 2009

LISBON, PORTUGAL - The Portuguese navy thwarted an attack on a local fishing boat by pirates off the coast of Somalia, officials said on Thursday.

Fishermen raised the alarm when five pirates tried to hijack their boat some 100 nautical miles (220 kilometres) to the north of Port Bassasso, Portuguese navy officials said in a statement.
A group of Portuguese officers from the Alvares Cabral vessel arrived on the scene by helicopter accompanied by a Spanish navy plane and arrested the five would-be hijackers, the statement said.
This operation "shows pirates that NATO and its partners are coordinated and ready to prevent pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden," it added.
The UN's International Maritime Organization's (IMO) says that from January to September of this year, 160 acts of piracy were reported off the coast of Somalia, including 34 hijacked vessels and more than 450 people taken hostage.

LINK to VIDEO

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user posted image

Pirates seized by NRP Alvares Cabral (SNMG1 flagship)

Nov 30th - AP

Monday Nov. 30, 2009, Portuguese Naval Marines from the frigate 'Alvares Cabral', guard a group of Somali pirates, during a joint operation with Seychelles and EU forces in the Somali Basin, off the Seychelles, Sunday Nov. 29, 2009, against a pirate group that had attacked the-Spanish flagged fishing vessel 'Ortube Berria'. Involved on the operation, besides the NATO flagship, were the Seychelles Patrol Boat 'Andromache' and two Maritime Patrol Aircraft's from the EU Task-Force also operating in the area on counter-piracy mission. The aircrafts detected and tracked the pirate attacking group composed by a mother-ship and two smaller attack skiffs.(AP Photo/Carlos Dias, NATO)

LINK to VIDEO

This post has been edited by MSantor on Dec 3 2009, 04:24 AM

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