Oil, toil and trouble

By Julian Rogers, Deputy Editor

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 Swashbuckling Blackbeards brandishing cutlasses have been superseded by ruthless, money-hungry Somali gangs armed with automatic weapons, global positioning systems and satellite phones.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

“Somalia is a completely failed state with no political structure to speak of and there is no law enforcement capability so these gangs operate with total impunity”
-Jeroen Meijer, Control Risks

In 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 quarter 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 industry 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 addressing 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."

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 million 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 control 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 Affairs. "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 first not to pay a ransom, which impacts on the safety of your crew?" Likewise, Davis is of the opinion that the pay-offs 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 hand, which is making the situation quite nasty because the bigger the ransoms, the more people that want to get involved. And there is no shortage of manpower for them to send out and there can never be enough warships to effectively prevent it."

Numbers game

According to the International Chamber of Commerce's International Maritime Bureau (IMB), the number of attacks so far this year off Somalia has already surpassed the 2008 total. Last year witnessed 111 incidents, with 42 vessels hijacked. Up until mid-May of this year 29 successful hijackings were recorded from 114 attempted attacks. And while a total of 815 crew members were taken hostage in 2008, this figure stood at 478 by the middle of May this year. "These guys have found a business model that makes a lot more money than their traditional fishing industry, and I mean a lot," remarks Jeroen Meijer, a security consultant for threat and safety advisors Control Risks and former officer in the Royal Netherlands Navy. "Keeping that business model intact is crucial, so they constantly adapt their modus operandi. We saw them operating in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Mogadishu [Somalia's capital] and we have seen them going into the Red Sea and Omani waters. So they are constantly adapting where they operate to minimise the threat to their operations."

A knock-on effect of the piracy has been a sharp rise in shipping costs as some shipping firms choose to avoid the Suez Canal and navigate their vessels thousands of kilometres further via South Africa's Cape of Good Hope. On top of this, insurance costs have soared by as much as 100 percent. However, there are more than a dozen naval forces, as part of the multinational coalition offensive (Combined Task Force 150), flexing their military muscle and patrolling the Gulf of Aden in a bid to thwart the pirates. However, this asymmetrical warfare has forced the pirates to scour for victims in less policed waters, namely the western Indian Ocean.

If they can pass under the radar of the multinational naval armada the pirates typically approach a target by speedboat or skiff (a shallow, fast boat), firing on the ship until the captain submits and allows them to board by means of grapple hooks and rope ladders. Some pirate gangs are particularly well-equipped for the job in hand, says Middleton. "They are generally armed with AK47s, and sometimes RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), while their boats generally have outboard Yamaha engines and they may have GPS and satellite phones."

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 sailing 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 patrols and 'lookouts' have also been ramped up. "You only have a short time to prevent these pirates from boarding and taking control of the ships," explains Dr Mustafa Alani, Director of the Terrorism and Security department at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre. "Once they have control then you have hostages and you have to deal with the situation completely differently." Dr Alani argues that ship owners either need to station troops onboard or you allow the civilian crew to be armed and trained in how to repel attackers.

"However, there is always this giant 'but'," says Davis, "You are dealing with intelligent opponents who have figured out a number of ways in which they can very successfully board a vessel." Davis says the crews who wind up getting hijacked invariably have little or no understanding of the threats and have been given no training in how to defend their vessels. However, there are certain measures crews can take to make it nigh on impossible for pirates to get on board, he reveals [see opposite]. He is also concerned with the fact that ship owners are deploying a mishmash of anti-piracy measures instead of adopting a standardised approach. "We have such a divide across the world," he notes. "For instance, the Americans are putting arms on everything, which is not very helpful and will lead to all sorts of problems because the ultimate 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 uncomfortable with the arms issue and civilian guards."

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 pirates 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.

A continuing lawless atmosphere in the country has magnified the problem. "Somalia being a lawless state with a free and open coastline that no one is able and willing to defend is 100 percent the reason why the pirates can get away with it," Davis notes. This sentiment is echoed by Meijer: "Somalia is a completely failed state with no political structure to speak of and there is no law enforcement capability so these gangs operate with total impunity. Those who live on the coast see the wealth of the world sailing by everyday, so in an extremely benign maritime environment where you can operate with a small boat for very little cost and together with a Kalashnikov and an RPG, you are able to hijack these riches on your doorstep."

It also appears that money is the sole factor behind the pirates' determination, with no link uncovered between the attacks and organised terrorism, say the experts. "There is absolutely none," reveals Dr Alani. "On the contrary, we get information that the pirates fear the extreme Islamists who see them as thieves." Indeed, there is a preconception 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. "Throughout history piracy has been an issue and it will never be completely stamped out - this is an illusion," states a philosophical Meijer.

 

Fact

The Somali coast stretches 3000km  around the Horn of Africa and is the longest of any country on the continent.

Fighting back

How ship owners can protect their cargo and crews

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.

More simple but effective measures include attaching barbed wire to the boat to hamper pirates' attempts to clamber aboard. Some vessels are also fitted with powerful hoses used for blasting anyone who gets anywhere near, but some ship owners have taken a more hard line approach by providing machine guns.

Austrian company Schiebel has developed an unmanned helicopter fitted with advanced sensors to alert crews of advancing maritime gangs. The three-metre long Camcopter S-100 can be flown by remote control or by pre-programmed GPS waypoints. This 'eye in the sky' can fly up to 120 knots powered by a 55hp rotary engine.

The most effective and practical measure, maritime experts suggest, is to sail at a speed exceeding 25 knots, pull up the ship's ladder and have a high freeboard.

 

“You only have a short time to prevent these pirates from boarding and taking control of the ships”
-Dr Mustafa Alani, Gulf Research Centre