Pirates attack three oil tankers offshore Nigeria and Indonesia

Pirates attack three oil tankers offshore Nigeria and Indonesia

Bloomberg, London

Three oil tankers offshore Indonesia and Nigeria were among five ships targeted by pirates last week, extending the worst year of violence on the seas in more than a decade, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said.

"The attacks on tankers are happening almost every week, which is very worrying," said Pottengal Mukundan, the IMB's deputy director, in a telephone interview in London. "The fact that these vessels that are being targeted are carrying hazardous cargoes poses environmental risks."

Incidents worldwide surged 27 percent to 344 in the year's first nine months, the highest since 1991, the agency has reported. Two tankers were among six vessels struck during the previous week, which ended Nov. 17, said the IMB, a part of the International Chamber of Commerce.

Three pirates held a crewmember hostage after boarding a tanker near one of Indonesia's main oil ports, Balikpapan in eastern Borneo, on Nov. 24. The crew was held at gunpoint while attackers stole the vessel's property before escaping.

Five days earlier, an oil tanker was attacked to the east of Singapore, the piracy center said. About seven people boarded the tanker and stole its cash. A third tanker was targeted on Nov. 22 at Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, which handles the nation's oil- product imports. The names of the tankers aren't reported, the group said.

Oil tankers have been hijacked in the past whereby the pirates sold the cargo and later renamed the ship, said IMB's Mukundan. "It's up to the coastal states to make sure that their waters are safe," he said.

The other two ships attacked were bulk and refrigerated carriers, or so-called reefers, which were attacked off Bangladesh and South Africa, the piracy center said.