Recent attack on Singapore-flagged Success 9 highlights threat of piracy, say experts

SINGAPORE - The high seas hijacking of the Singapore-flagged oil tanker Success 9 in April has brought into focus the dangers sailors face operating in the Gulf of Guinea, and experts say the latest incident shows that the threat of piracy remains high.

The Success 9 was boarded by pirates

about 570km off the Ivory Coast on April 10. The pirates reportedly stole fuel off the tanker, which was found five days later – with all its 20 crew members, including one Singaporean,

safely on board.

Another similar incident took place on March 25, when the Liberia-flagged oil tanker Monjasa Reformer was boarded by five armed pirates off the city of Pointe Noir, Congo, according to the Maritime Domain Awareness Trade - Gulf of Guinea (Mdat-GOG) maritime monitoring initiative by France and Britain. Six of the 16 sailors were kidnapped.

These incidents come just as an international report on piracy showed that pirate activity in the Gulf of Guinea has been declining.

There were five reported incidents in the first quarter of 2023, according to latest data by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre.

Incidents have also decreased each year since 2020, from 84 cases that year to 19 cases in 2022, according to a report published in January by the International Chamber of Commerce’s IMB International Maritime Bureau.

Experts attribute the decline in cases to improved surveillance and efforts by international navies to curb piracy, but they also point out that the two latest cases show how the threat of pirate attacks still remains high.

Britain-based security consultant EOS Risk Group said in a tweet in April that the pirates have been using a mothership or a tanker to deploy their skiffs to launch attacks from a farther distance, exemplifying West African pirates’ ability to conduct piracy at great range from the shore in the last two incidents.

Head of global cargo risk from S&P Global Market Intelligence Columb Strack told The Straits Times that the attacks on the two vessels took place several hundred kilometres away from “high-risk” areas in the Gulf of Guinea where anti-piracy efforts are typically concentrated.

It showed that pirates were adapting to anti-piracy operations by operating at greater distance from Nigerian waters, he said.

“Although there is a greater cost and effort involved for these criminal groups, they would have assessed that operating farther out reduces the risk of detection sufficiently to make it lucrative,” said Mr Strack.

He expects piracy activity to increase towards the end of 2023 and into 2024 as seasonal weather conditions in the Gulf of Guinea improves.

Co-lead of Mdat-GoG Eric Jaslin said pirates’ modus operandi typically include robbing crew members’ belongings, stealing fuel, or kidnapping crew for ransom.

“The last two (attacks) shows strong preparation, planning and good logistic support (from the pirates’ end),” he said.

Shipping companies say they have to accept the risks of sailing through the African region. Local firm Pacific International Lines (PIL), which has three to four ships sailing in West Africa weekly, said it has encountered incidents, including crew kidnapping off the African coast.

Crew members were not injured during those incidents, but trade routes in the African region could not be practically substituted by other means, said a PIL spokesman.

“Ocean trade is important for the development of Africa and the region, as well as the local communities,” she said.

“PIL continues to collaborate with the various security institutions, provide the best security solutions available to our fleet of vessels to ensure the safety of our crew and the vessels by conducting regular risk assessments, training the crew and implementing additional ship specific protection measures for the vessels to ensure safe transits in the waters.”