Nigeria has become the world’s leader in piracy attacks, primarily targeting the oil industry in that country, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
“Violent attacks are carried out by pirates on board vessels at anchor and vessels carrying out ship-to-shore operations,” IMB said. “Mariners are advised to exercise extreme caution in these waters,” it warned.
Nigeria accounted for 10 of the 49 pirate attacks registered worldwide in first-quarter 2008, making it “the number one hotspot” for piracy, IMB said. It marked the first time in 16 years of reporting that another country has surpassed Indonesia for that position. The most pirate-infested zones are around Nigeria’s economic capital, Lagos, and in the oil-rich waters of the southern Niger Delta.
Nigerian officials say their country is ill-equipped to combat pirates, who operate in the nation’s waterways with speedboats, machine guns, and radios to target tankers, trawlers, barges, and other oil industry support vessels. “Between Bayelsa and Delta (two oil-rich southern states) there are some 3,014 creeks leading to the ocean. With just 11 [operational Nigerian navy] vessels, it’s extremely difficult to control these zones,” said Nigerian navy spokesman Henry Babalola.
Meanwhile, Nigerian security forces located the MV Lourdes Tide, a supply vessel owned by Tide Waters firm and working for Chevron Corp. that was hijacked May 13 by armed militants in route from Onne in Rivers state to Escravos in Delta in southern Nigeria.
Authorities are said to be drawing up a strategy to free the vessel’s 11-man crew after Chevron opposed an initial plan by security forces to storm the vessel. Military Joint Task Force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Musa Sagir said the attackers asked for a ransom of $260,000 for the hostages’ release.
In January, French maritime company Bourbon suspended activities on the Bonny River after an attack on one of its vessels, the Bourbon Leda, which was chartered by Royal Dutch Shell.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), said to be the best-armed group in the region, claimed responsibility for the attack. A year ago, MEND claimed responsibility for an attack on Chevron’s Oloibiri FPSO off Bayelsa state that resulted in the death of one Nigerian sailor and the kidnapping of six foreign oil workers (OGJ, May 7, 2007, p. 35).
The US and French governments, deeply concerned about attacks on oil tankers, recently introduced a draft United Nations resolution that would allow countries to pursue pirates from the high seas into territorial waters to arrest them (OGJ, May 12, 2008 p. 36 ).
