Subscribe to our Mailing Lists (It's free!)
Saturday, January 28, 2023
SAFETY4SEA
  • Home
  • Safety
    • All
    • Accidents
    • Alerts
    • Loss Prevention
    • Maritime Health
    • Regulation
    • Safety
    • Seafarers
    • Security
    worker injures finger

    Lessons learned: Be aware of the risks around you

    pilot ladder

    Lessons learned: Safety critical equipment should always be inspected before use

    port of rotterdam accidents

    Port of Rotterdam: Small decrease in accidents in 2022

    uae Harmonized System of Survey and Certification for ships

    UAE: Adoption of Harmonized System of Survey and Certification for ships

  • SEAFiT
    • All
    • Intellectual
    • Mental
    • Physical
    • Social
    • Spiritual
    Meditation

    What happens when you meditate daily: 10+1 benefits

    kidney stones

    Preventing kidney stones: How to stay hydrated onboard

    sleep schedule

    Feeling tired? Tips to reset your sleep schedule

    seasickness

    Tips for managing seasickness onboard

  • Green
    • All
    • Arctic
    • Ballast
    • Emissions
    • Fuels
    • Green Shipping
    • Pollution
    • Ship Recycling
    • Technology
    us ferries zero emissions

    US: Funding to accelerate ferries’ transition to zero emissions

    mol ammonia bulker

    ClassNK approves ammonia-powered bulker

    port of rotterdam maritime bunkers

    Port of Rotterdam: Demand for maritime bunkers increase in 2022

    poseidon principles annual report

    Poseidon Principles: Annual Disclosure Report

  • Smart
    • All
    • Connectivity
    • Cyber Security
    • E-navigation
    • Energy Efficiency
    • Maritime Software
    • Smart
    allianz cyber risks

    Allianz: Cyber risks the most important risk globally

    ig clubs electronic bills of lading

    IG Clubs approve blockchain system for electronic bills of lading

    port of rotterdam drones

    Port of Rotterdam: Airspace organized for drone use

    port of tilbury portchain

    Port of Tilbury: Digital solution to create reliable berth plans

  • Risk
    • All
    • CIC
    • Detentions
    • Fines
    • PSC Focus
    • Vetting
    fmc delay and disruption claims

    FMC: Increase in “Delay and Disruption” claims

    crew jail illegal sell of marine gas oil

    Singapore: 11 crew jailed due to Illegal sale of marine gas oil

    uk mca ships detentions

    UK MCA: Five new foreign flagged ships detained during December 2022

    shipowner operator fined

    US: Shipowner and operator fined $2m over illegal discharges

  • Others
    • All
    • Diversity in shipping
    • Maritime Knowledge
    • Offshore
    • Ports
    • Reports
    • Shipping
    • Sustainability
    • Videos
    underwater noise

    Clean Arctic Alliance: Underwater noise progress welcome, but more action necessary

    energy crisis

    Energy crisis: New global risk causes disruption in 2023

    ukraine low grain exports

    Ukraine: Slow pace of Russian inspections responsible for low grain exports

    port of rotterdam accidents

    Port of Rotterdam: Small decrease in accidents in 2022

  • Columns
    Maritime Just Transition Task Force: Engaging industry in social dialogue

    Maritime Just Transition Task Force: Engaging industry in social dialogue

    Career Paths: David Tournay, Maritime Skills Alliance

    Career Paths: Sinikka Hartonen, One Sea Association

    Career Paths: David Tournay, Maritime Skills Alliance

    Career Paths: David Tournay, Maritime Skills Alliance

    Trending Tags

    • Career Paths
    • Industry Voices
    • Maripedia
    • Maritime History
    • Resilience
    • Seafarers Stories
    • SeaSense
  • Events
  • Plus
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Safety
    • All
    • Accidents
    • Alerts
    • Loss Prevention
    • Maritime Health
    • Regulation
    • Safety
    • Seafarers
    • Security
    worker injures finger

    Lessons learned: Be aware of the risks around you

    pilot ladder

    Lessons learned: Safety critical equipment should always be inspected before use

    port of rotterdam accidents

    Port of Rotterdam: Small decrease in accidents in 2022

    uae Harmonized System of Survey and Certification for ships

    UAE: Adoption of Harmonized System of Survey and Certification for ships

  • SEAFiT
    • All
    • Intellectual
    • Mental
    • Physical
    • Social
    • Spiritual
    Meditation

    What happens when you meditate daily: 10+1 benefits

    kidney stones

    Preventing kidney stones: How to stay hydrated onboard

    sleep schedule

    Feeling tired? Tips to reset your sleep schedule

    seasickness

    Tips for managing seasickness onboard

  • Green
    • All
    • Arctic
    • Ballast
    • Emissions
    • Fuels
    • Green Shipping
    • Pollution
    • Ship Recycling
    • Technology
    us ferries zero emissions

    US: Funding to accelerate ferries’ transition to zero emissions

    mol ammonia bulker

    ClassNK approves ammonia-powered bulker

    port of rotterdam maritime bunkers

    Port of Rotterdam: Demand for maritime bunkers increase in 2022

    poseidon principles annual report

    Poseidon Principles: Annual Disclosure Report

  • Smart
    • All
    • Connectivity
    • Cyber Security
    • E-navigation
    • Energy Efficiency
    • Maritime Software
    • Smart
    allianz cyber risks

    Allianz: Cyber risks the most important risk globally

    ig clubs electronic bills of lading

    IG Clubs approve blockchain system for electronic bills of lading

    port of rotterdam drones

    Port of Rotterdam: Airspace organized for drone use

    port of tilbury portchain

    Port of Tilbury: Digital solution to create reliable berth plans

  • Risk
    • All
    • CIC
    • Detentions
    • Fines
    • PSC Focus
    • Vetting
    fmc delay and disruption claims

    FMC: Increase in “Delay and Disruption” claims

    crew jail illegal sell of marine gas oil

    Singapore: 11 crew jailed due to Illegal sale of marine gas oil

    uk mca ships detentions

    UK MCA: Five new foreign flagged ships detained during December 2022

    shipowner operator fined

    US: Shipowner and operator fined $2m over illegal discharges

  • Others
    • All
    • Diversity in shipping
    • Maritime Knowledge
    • Offshore
    • Ports
    • Reports
    • Shipping
    • Sustainability
    • Videos
    underwater noise

    Clean Arctic Alliance: Underwater noise progress welcome, but more action necessary

    energy crisis

    Energy crisis: New global risk causes disruption in 2023

    ukraine low grain exports

    Ukraine: Slow pace of Russian inspections responsible for low grain exports

    port of rotterdam accidents

    Port of Rotterdam: Small decrease in accidents in 2022

  • Columns
    Maritime Just Transition Task Force: Engaging industry in social dialogue

    Maritime Just Transition Task Force: Engaging industry in social dialogue

    Career Paths: David Tournay, Maritime Skills Alliance

    Career Paths: Sinikka Hartonen, One Sea Association

    Career Paths: David Tournay, Maritime Skills Alliance

    Career Paths: David Tournay, Maritime Skills Alliance

    Trending Tags

    • Career Paths
    • Industry Voices
    • Maripedia
    • Maritime History
    • Resilience
    • Seafarers Stories
    • SeaSense
  • Events
  • Plus
No Result
View All Result
SAFETY4SEA

Report: Riverine piracy a major threat at Niger Delta

by The Editorial Team
December 5, 2022
in Security
recaap isc armed robbery

Credits: Shutterstock

FacebookTwitterEmailLinkedin

A new report makes an analysis of the connection between piracy and oil bunkering in the Niger Delta. It notes that although deep offshore piracy has decreased, it has not disappeared.

The report was written by Katja Lindskov Jacobsen, Senior Researcher at Center for Military Studies, University of Copenhagen, and Tarila Marclint Ebiede, Co-Founder and Director of Conflict Research Network West Africa, under the coordination of Thomas Kieler Hansen, EU Delegation Nigeria, and Giulia Nicoloso, CRIMSON Team Leader, makes an analysis of the connection between piracy and oil bunkering in the Niger Delta.

As it informs, after several years during which the Gulf of Guinea had been the world’s number one piracy hotspot with hundreds of seafarers kidnapped annually, since April 2021 there is a significant downtrend in the number of attacks.

With a strong drop in the numbers of kidnap for ransom piracy attacks over spring 2021, a further decrease was registered during the latter half of the year. And most significantly, thus far there are no successful kidnappings of seafarers in the Gulf of Guinea all of 2022. Where attacks happened, the pirates did not succeed in kidnapping crew.

RelatedNews

ReCAAP ISC: Two armed piracy incidents in Asia

Bomb hits cargo ship off Odessa

At the same time, industrial-scale oil theft poses an “existential” threat to Nigeria, which slipped behind Angola as Africa’s largest oil exporter in July 2022. Nigeria’s crude oil production decreased to an average of 937,766 barrels per day (bpd) in September 2022, an unprecedented data considering that even amid the Niger Delta agitations output never fell below 1.4 million bpd

the report says.

Piracy status

Although deep offshore piracy has decreased, it has not disappeared. In particular, the report mentions that riverine pirates continue to perform attacks on locals in the region, maintaining intact the foundation behind deep offshore piracy.

In fact, it warns that new aspects of the dynamics and factors that influence the actions of pirate groups have been discovered. More specifically, “spiritualism and rituals are important considering that such practices may influence for example the behaviour of pirate groups at different moments, including the timing of their mission and their response in potential encounters with regional or international navies.”

Besides differentiating different groups, rituals may also have an important internal function: even if gathered on an occasional basis, their “composition” as a group may be “strengthened” by different rituals conducted just before a specific mission, often showcased by similar visual elements as well as less visible symbols, including strings tied to the pirates’ weapons.

What is more, deep offshore pirate groups are not ‘standing entities’, but they are called together for a specific mission, on a “case-by-case” basis.

However, this does not mean that groups are put together randomly as certain skills and figures are always needed: a boat pilot, a group leader, one or two persons who are skilled in how to raise the ladder to board the targeted ship, and someone with knowledge of ships, e.g. to locate the citadel or operate/destroy navigation and other equipment on the boarded vessel

From the field work interviews, the dynamics of “calling for a mission” were also discussed. Namely, the report explains that the decision to go out and conduct attack may sometimes be instigated by a kingpin giving information to a group leader to conduct a mission. Other times it may be the group leader asking a kingpin for finance to off on a mission. As such, there is a both top-down and a bottom-up way of starting a mission.

Credit: European Commission

Oil bunkering

Oil theft can be carried out in various ways, but the most common practice in the Niger Delta involves tapping into and vandalising legal pipelines, which are operated by international and domestic oil companies. The transport of the stolen oil can also happen in various ways, but it mainly involves either barges or a system of illegal pipelines.

According to Ms. Jacobsen and Mr. Ebiede, the illegal oil bunkering business can be broken into two broad categories:

  • Theft of crude oil and then shipping it directly to regional and international markets;
  • Theft of crude oil and its refining into various petroleum products supplied to local and regional markets.

As such, illegal crude oil and refined products go to the three different levels: local, regional and international.

#1 Local oil bunkering: It mainly focuses on artisanal refining of crude oil. Although there are no clear figures of how much oil Nigeria loses to artisanal refiners daily, the Military Joint Task Force (JTF) indicates that between January 1 to May 2022, the JTF have seized about 27 million litres of automotive gas oil (AGO) from artisanal oil refiners. The JTF admits that due to the limited resources required to set up these refineries, they are often reassembled after destruction by the military.

#2 Regional level oil bunkering: This involves the supply of artisanal refined crude oil products to neighbouring countries such as Ghana, Togo, Benin and Cameroon. The regional level also receives supply of crude oil from the Niger Delta mainly through two sources: from crude oil stolen from transport pipelines and loaded onto transport barges that are able to supply vessels waiting offshore and crude stolen through semi-official means through a process called ‘topping’, an act of adding undeclared crude oil to official shipments.

#3 The international dimension of crude oil bunkering in the Niger Delta: This focuses mainly on crude oil theft and supply to international vessels that operate beyond the Gulf of Guinea. The international dimension of crude oil theft involves militant leaders.

Credit: European Commission

The role of naval presence at sea

The report highlights that international navy presence plays an important role in disrupting offshore piracy. However, such presence is tackling only one symptom of a disease that is very well rooted in the history of the Niger Delta agitations and the (in)security culture in the region.

It is now well established that to tackle offshore piracy it is necessary to take into consideration on-land factors and address the root causes. It is undoubtful that international navy presence play an important role in disrupting the offshore dimensions of piracy

Ms. Jacobsen and Mr. Ebiede stated.

Accordingly, an individual “hard security” approach, such as the deployment of navy vessels at sea, cannot be considered a solution to this multifaceted problem of piracy, the report concluded.

explore more at the report on piracy in the niger delta

Tags: Gulf of Guineamaritime piracypiracy attackpiracy threatreports

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended

underwater noise

Clean Arctic Alliance: Underwater noise progress welcome, but more action necessary

January 27, 2023
energy crisis

Energy crisis: New global risk causes disruption in 2023

January 27, 2023

SEAFiT Poll

What is the biggest obstacle for the social life onboard?

MARITIME EVENTS

Explore

  • Safety
  • Green
  • Smart
  • Risk
  • Others
  • Events
  • Plus

Useful Links

  • About
  • Disclaimer
  • Editorial Policies
  • Advertising
  • Contact

RISK4SEA Facts

Did you know that Manager Base matters for 2020? Taiwan-based managers with Panamax had approximately 66% more on Detention Rate than the global average.

Learn more risk4sea.com

© 2021 SAFETY4SEA

No Result
View All Result
  • Safety
    • Alerts
    • Accidents
    • Loss Prevention
    • Maritime Health
    • Regulation
    • Safety
    • Seafarers
    • Security
  • Green
    • Arctic
    • Ballast
    • Emissions
    • Fuels
    • Green Shipping
    • Pollution
    • Ship Recycling
    • Technology
  • Smart
    • Connectivity
    • Cyber Security
    • E-navigation
    • Energy Efficiency
    • Maritime Software
    • Smart
  • Risk
    • CIC
    • Detentions
    • Fines
    • PSC Focus
    • Vetting
  • Others
    • Diversity in shipping
    • Maritime Knowledge
    • Offshore
    • Ports
    • Reports
    • Shipping
    • Sustainability
    • Videos
  • Columns
    • Opinions
    • Career Paths
    • Industry Voices
    • Maripedia
    • Maritime History
    • Seafarers Stories
    • SeaSense
  • Events
  • Plus

© 2021 SAFETY4SEA

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Disclaimer.