Shippers Face Heightened Piracy Threat

Yemen LNG’s Francois Rafin warned delegates at this month’s CWC LNG Summit in Rome of a growing threat to LNG shippers posed by Somali pirates. He cautioned that the industry could no longer rely on the speed and height of the vessels alone to stave off attacks, noting that there have been two incidents when pirates have boarded LNG carriers “steaming at 20 knots with high freeboard.” LNG tankers are faster and sit higher in the water, known as freeboard, than other vessels. This has discouraged hijack attempts because of the added difficulties in boarding. Yet last year, according to the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy  Report 2010, a half dozen pirates armed with knives robbed the crew of a Qatari  tanker with 216,000 m3 of the fuel on board in the South China Sea. In that case, the boarders left quickly with their loot and the ship avoided any delays in the delivery of the cargo. Download here