Pirate price watch

Low prices are making oil tanker heists off Africa’s western coast not worth the risk.

Cheap Oil Is Taking A Major Toll On Pirates

Alexander C. Kaufman

Oil companies aren’t the only ones scaling down operations in the face of low oil prices.

Pirate attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Guinea fell by 29 percent last year, in part because the cheaper cargo just isn’t worth the danger posed by increased naval security off the west African coast.

“Since the price dropped, there has been a decline in piracy and the numbers are there,” Bolaji Akinola, a maritime consultant based in Lagos, Nigeria, said in asegment that aired Sunday on NPR. “The low oil price is a deterrence. It’s not much of a worthwhile venture any longer.”

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Source: huffingtonpost.com

MSR Note: The latest in a number of articles discussing the oil price and piracy which fails to acknowledge the significant increase in pirate attacks and crew kidnappings in the Gulf of Guinea.

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