Piracy

Lord Greenway Excerpts

Thursday 16th October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, first, I pay tribute to the Merchant Navy, which is often the unsung hero; without it, world trade comes to a halt. The noble Lord referred to the Royal Navy. Two Royal Navy vessels visited west Africa last year and three so far this year. They conducted a series of visits and training exercises; their efforts vary from hosting senior officers and training small boat crews to organising multiple ships in a passage exercise. So they are covering all the bases to make sure that the skills are there and that action can be taken. There are also diplomatic efforts to ensure that we encourage the Yaoundé agreement to go ahead and so that the Maritime Trade Information Sharing Centre in the Gulf of Guinea is operative, and we contribute funds to that.

[Lord Greenway (CB)]

Does the Minister agree that the real problems lie in the buoyant black market for oil in the region and the endemic corruption, up to government level—and, in one of the worst cases, up to admirals in the Nigerian navy, who have been implicated? This problem, as she says, can only really be solved by countries working together internationally to help to develop regional maritime security in the area.

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, I agree entirely with the noble Lord. The only thing that I would add is simply the figures. He refers to the amount of theft of oil in Nigeria. Conservative estimates indicate that up to 100,000 barrels of oil a day are stolen in Nigeria.

Piracy

Lord Greenway Excerpts

Wednesday 24th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenway]

My Lords, I, too, would like to express my gratitude to the noble Lord, Lord Luce, for introducing this debate. I would also very much like to endorse what the right reverend Prelate has said about the human element. I have had the great pleasure of working closely with the Mission to Seafarers over the past 20 or so years. It is worrying to hear that the problem, as I elaborated on when we last debated this topic, was one of malnutrition. That has now moved on into violence, which is a distressing development. As we have heard, much progress has been made and the number of attacks has been greatly reduced. However, caution must remain our watchword and any hint of complacency could see the pattern escalate again very quickly, especially now that the monsoon period has come to an end.

It has been a very worthwhile effort from all sides but it is very resource intensive. UK interests have benefited in that no UK ship has been taken for some months, and we can put this success down to three things. First, there has been best management practice. That involves ships taking the correct defence against pirate attacks, such as weaving and the use of hoses and barbed wire—anything that acts as a deterrent to stop the pirates boarding. Secondly, there have been the efforts of EU NAVFOR with Operation Atalanta and the wider international coalition’s efforts. Thirdly, there has been the use of armed guards aboard ships, which has already been mentioned, although the shipping community accepted that with reluctance. In this regard, it is not keen to set a precedent that would continue. The fact that armed guards are aboard ships has worked so far, without any ship being attacked.

However, there is always the chance of something ending in a firefight in which a crew member is killed. I hope that we will not reach that position, but there is always that risk. At the moment, 1,170 pirates have been detained in 21 countries. Many of them are prosecuted in the regions to which they are taken. However, there remain an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 people engaged in piracy activity, so there still are many more people around. The risks must be seen to outweigh the rewards and we must seek to prosecute the pirates wherever possible. However, the mere removal of arms and boarding gear, such as the ladders the pirates use, from the pirate skiffs is often a sufficient deterrent, as the pirates, when they return to their bases, are not made welcome at all because the ringleaders and the investors—this is a business—are not pleased to see them return empty-handed. There are estimated to be around 20 to 30 ringleaders, of which some nine or 10 are active at the moment. Some of them have diversified, with their ill-gotten gains, into the restaurant business, selling cars and other such things.

The EU NAVFOR attack on one of the shore bases and the destruction of some of the boats has already been mentioned. That is a great move forward; I wish it had been done earlier. It has had a great effect in demoralising the pirates. There has been something of a change of tactics recently. Only two ships have been taken recently and these were a dhow and a fishing vessel, but there is a belief that these are to be used as mother ships to take the smaller skiffs out to sea—they go 1,000 miles offshore, which is a very long way.

One thing that worries the UK shipping industry is moves that I believe are taking place towards at least discussing a possible ban on ransom payments. The ability to pay ransom is important as it allows hostages—as we have heard from the right reverend Prelate—to be retrieved and also maintains the confidence of seafarers. Intelligence and surveillance remain the key. I understand that the few maritime patrol aircraft involved have been very effective. For that reason, I cannot help regretting the fact that we destroyed those Nimrod aircraft, which would have been very effective in this instance. Convoys are being used in the very congested region where ships enter the Red Sea: Japanese, Italian and Chinese ships are involved in this, but convoys are, of necessity, a quasi-military operation and not all ships, seafarers or shipping companies are keen to use their ships in this way, since ships have to arrive at a certain time and so on.

Finally, I have kept clear of the political situation onshore, but it would be wonderful if Somalia could declare a 200-mile exclusive economic zone. We could then assist them to rebuild their fish plants and perhaps supply them with a number of trawlers in order to train the younger people and give them some jobs and hope. I hope that the new Administration in Somalia will begin to tackle this.

Arctic Ice Cap

Lord Greenway Excerpts

Monday 6th December 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenway]

My Lords, I agree very much with the noble Lord, Lord Jay, when he says that he does not think we will see a great new northern sea route coming into play within the next 10 years. I suggest it will be quite a few years beyond that. Most of the voyages that have been made round the north-east passage rather than the north-west passage, which is over the top of Russia, have been experimental. We can go back to 1997 when a Finnish tanker made the voyage. More recently, as the noble Lord said, two German freighters made the voyage but not, as he said, from Vladivostok to Holland; in fact, they came from South Korea and went over the top to Rotterdam. They stopped off on the way at Novyy in Yamburg province which meant they had icebreaker escort and had to take Russian ice pilots.

This year, a Danish bulk carrier “Nordic Barents” carried 41,000 tonnes of iron ore from Kirkenes on the Norwegian-Russian border to Qingdao in China. The Russian shipping company Sovcomflot sent a relatively large tanker—117,000 tonnes deadweight—the “SCF Baltica”, loaded with 70,000 tonnes of gas condensate from Vitino and Murmansk to Ningbo in China in 22 days. She was also escorted by three icebreakers.

Sovcomflot is preparing to send an even bigger tanker—162,000 tonnes—on a trial voyage next year. However, here we come up against draft restrictions. At the moment the Sankov and Sannikar Straits are restricted to 12.5 metres and 13 metres respectively and larger ships, drawing more than 15 metres, will be forced to go further offshore into higher latitudes, where the risk from floating icebergs is greater.

Companies which have sent ships around the north have said that they are very satisfied—it cuts 4,000 miles off the voyage, it saves them paying Suez Canal dues and saves the piracy problems. If a much larger amount of shipping was to go round the north of Russia, and if one was to believe from WikiLeaks’ revelations that Russia is a mafia state, I can see various Russians becoming very interested in what was going around their shores and there is nobody there to help ships, unlike going through the Gulf of Aden.

One possible drawback to the northern sea route is attracting the attention from the green and climate change lobbies. One report suggests that the release of CO₂ and engine particles—that is, black carbon or soot as we know it—from diesel engines in a sensitive area as regards climate change could lead to an increase in global warming.

Other reports suggest that up to 2 per cent of global shipping traffic could be using northern sea routes by 2030, rising to 5 per cent by 2050. To put that in context, today 4 per cent of world shipping uses the Suez Canal—that is an enormous amount of shipping. To be quite honest, I cannot see it happening for a very long time.

The other thing to take into account, which has not been mentioned, is that at the moment, with global warming, we have a two-month window in effect for shipping but the winter is still frozen over. Shipping is not going to suddenly take to using these Arctic routes. I think the likelihood is that it will be reserved for bulk cargoes, both wet and dry, mainly exports from Russia. The main container trades, I would suggest, are very unlikely to start using these northern routes. I want to give an example of the mileages—Hamburg to Yokohama going by the northern sea route saves about 4,000 miles; to Hong Kong you save about 1,000 miles and to Singapore the distances are exactly the same.

Container shipping is a very complex web these days and ships pick up cargo all over the place. Let’s face it—they are not going to get any cargo in northern Russia, so I think they are going to stick to their proven routes for some time to come.

Piracy: Operation Atalanta (EUC Report)

Lord Greenway Excerpts

Wednesday 10th November 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greenway]

My Lords, I asked to be put at the end of the speakers list because, due to a longstanding engagement later, I was not quite certain whether I would be able to stay until the end of the debate. If I do have to leave, I apologise to the House and to the Minister. For that reason, I will not direct any questions to the Minister.

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, and his committee for their comprehensive job, and I broadly agree with everything they have said. The subject has been well covered by other speakers, so I would like to confine my remarks to looking at the problem from the shipping industry point of view. As has been said, piracy is nothing new. It has been around for centuries and it waxes and wanes. Going back 20 years, Brazil, west Africa and Indonesia were all causing problems. Pirates then operated on a random and opportunistic basis. They were basically after the cash that was held in the ships—and ships have to carry considerable amounts of cash around the world.

I will never forget when, 20 years ago, our parliamentary maritime group was addressed by a captain from a reputable British shipping company. He had joined a ship in Singapore and the ship had sailed. She was a big container ship, lightly loaded and therefore very high out of the water, and steaming at 19 knots, which is a reasonable speed. It was dark and, when she was about three or four hours out of port, the captain was sitting in his cabin and suddenly found himself confronted by four men in balaclavas armed with AK47s. They knew exactly what they wanted. They said, “Keys to the safe, please, captain”, and he had no option but to take them to the safe and to give them the money. They then asked him to come with them; they went down on to the deck and told him to turn round. He thought the worst—that he would get a bullet in the back of the head—but nothing happened. After a couple of minutes he dared to look round, and they had vanished. One must not underestimate the skill of some of these pirates. I have climbed up pilot ladders on big ships in the dark—that is frightening enough—but to do it in those circumstances is a quite skilful operation.

As we have heard, today piracy is a very different game. It is well organised and run as a business with a business plan. As the noble Lord, Lord Williams of Elvel, said, people are even taking shares in it. We have heard about the huge amounts of money that are paid out in ransoms. The noble Lord, Lord Hamilton, asked why we could not stop the payment of these ransoms. I understand the United States has done exactly that by executive order, and the rest of the world will watch closely to see how that pans out.

There are, of course, other expenses for the shipping community—the additional costs of security measures and extra fuel costs as a result of deviations due to pirate activity. We should not forget that these additional costs filter down through the market to the high street.

I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Chidgey, that we are approaching the tipping point; a major incident could happen at any time involving serious loss of life. If it happened in the Gulf of Aden, it could well lead to a blocking of the most important sea route between Asia and Europe, either through crews not wishing to serve on ships in that area or ship owners being cautious and not wanting to risk their ships. If that happened, it would be similar to what happened when the Suez Canal was blocked and would lead to an 8 to 10 per cent increase in the cost of fuel.

Of course, the main concern of the shipping community is the risk to human life. I shall say a little more about that later. There is also a great humanitarian concern for the seafarers who have been taken hostage. Organisations concerned with their safety and well-being, such as the Mission to Seafarers, are particularly worried about this aspect. The noble Lord, Lord Anderson, said that one person had been killed on a yacht recently. I understand that a Yemeni hostage, the second officer of a ship, died of malnutrition the other day and that three of his colleagues are in a very serious condition. That is a different aspect. There are two sides to all this.

There is already an agreed system of best practice for ship owners, which appears to be working well but, as the noble Lord, Lord Teverson said, it is by no means universal and we must try to educate the more wayward ship operators to take it on board.

Measures of self-defence are made more difficult today because ships are larger than they used to be and generally carry much smaller crews. This is largely due to the cost of crews and alternation. The industry is definitely against having armed personnel aboard ships because this would immediately up the ante. Do we really want fire fights in which some crew will inevitably lose their lives? It might be both cheaper and more effective to have more crew keeping watch, because, if you can see the pirates, you have a chance of doing something about it.

The noble Lord, Lord Anderson, mentioned the safe citadel approach, which, it has to be admitted, has worked quite well on two or three occasions recently. However, there is a drawback to it, because the pirates are forever resourceful. I heard that they may deploy plastic explosives to blast the crew out of wherever they are hiding. The strategy also depends on there being a secure means of communication with any warship that might happen to be in the area.

The shipping industry would certainly like to see a reduction in the frequency of piracy and a return to the more sporadic incidence of the past. However, it is realistic and is only too well aware, as has been said by a number of noble Lords, that the problem could easily spread to other parts of the world, largely by imitation.

I join others in commending the work of EU-NAVFOR and Operation Atalanta. I am delighted that their remit has been extended. I know that ships and resources are tight at the moment—we would all like to have more ships—and I fully agree with what has been said about the Nimrods. It is absolutely disgraceful not to spend that amount of money on a very capable aircraft that would be ideal for this sort of anti-piracy effort in the Indian Ocean.

If we build more warships—this point can be developed in the defence debate on Friday—they should be smaller and have a helicopter capability. A situation such as this calls for smaller ships and possibly amphibious ships, which are also going to be chopped.

I do, however, draw a crumb of comfort from the fact that, as both our and Europe’s naval power declines, so it is growing in other areas of the world, notably in India and China. I was surprised to read only this morning that India may have five aircraft carriers in five or six years. The mantle of policing the seas and trying to combat piracy may move to those new navies in time.