Targeting Tankers
By Dave Anderson:
The Somali piracy season is in full swing. Two tankers have been targeted this week, including the one that was captured at the start of the week.
Eagle Speaks:Somali pirates have captured a tanker carrying oil to the US, officials say.
The Greek-owned Maran Centaurus was about 1,300km (800 miles) off Somalia when it was hijacked on Sunday, said the EU Naval task force (Navfor).....The ship was full of oil and is believed to be one of the largest yet seized by Somali pirates...Navfor said the ship, which has a dead weight of some 300,000 tonnes, had been sailing to New Orleans in the US from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia but was now heading towards Somalia.
A coast guard statement says the Greek-flagged Sikinos, with a crew of 24, came under automatic gunfire from pirates 800km south-east of Oman on Tuesday. It says the crew fired flares and used high-pressure hoses to repel the attack.
The coast guard said the 16 Filipino and eight Greek seamen on board were unhurt, and the vessel was continuing its course for China.
The Sikinos had set off from Sudan, with a shipment of oil.
Big, slow vessels following predictable sealanes and carrying high value cargo sure makes excellent targets. It is this type of mild instability that I was referencing last week when I was publicly scratching my head as to why some of the oil exporting nations don't encourage mild instability or become amazingly ineffective at tamping down on instability.
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