RSSArrghhh! These Pirates Aren’t Funny
By Chip Hanlon | November 18, 2008 | 1:14 PM | 2 Comments
$250MM. That's the tally of the latest score by Somalia's increasingly-capable pirates: about $100MM in seized crude oil and another $150MM or so for the Sirius Star tanker, the VLCC they captured.
Once dismissed as a mere annoyance and more recently addressed by an increased international naval presence in the Gulf of Aden, the passageway to the Red Sea on Saudi Arabia's western border, these marauders are clearly going to need to be taken more seriously since they took control of this supertanker 450 miles from shore in the Indian Ocean. Read more about the incident here.
It isn't just "big oil" with a dog in this hunt; imagine if these characters didn't get the ransom they desired and decided to make a point by scuttling a ship of this size. Big oil, environmentalists and people of all political stripes have reason to hope the world's navies take this ongoing threat much more seriously after this hijacking.
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Comments (2) | Related Topics » Crude | Hanlon's Pub | Shipping
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