Pirates pirates pirates

With the news that the Saudi owned MV Sirius Star was hijacked earlier this week some 450 miles south east of Mombasas in Kenya, with a full cargo of oil worth about USD$100million, it would appear that the ol' pirates are extending their reach.

Previously, merchant ships were targeted as they entered the Gulf of Aden on their way to the Suez Canal through which 7.5% of the worlds sea trade is carried out, however this Saudi ship was hijacked over 2,000km from the Gulf of because the ship is too big for the Suez Canal, they were going to travel around Africa.

The MV Sirius Star, is a supertanker that ways approximately 390,000 tonnes and has a length of 332m and a beam (or width) of 58m and when full, carries up to a quarter of the daily oil output of Saudi Arabia. To put this into perspective, the US Navy's Nimitz class aircraft carriers have the same length and a beam of 40.84m. In other words, this class of aircraft carrier slightly smaller than the MV Sirius Star.
The fact the pirates could hijack a ship this size shows that any ship is vulnerable. Something every country with a shipping industry in the world is very concerned about. So much so that even the once proud and currently gun-shy Royal Navy is now engaging the pirates, as is the Indian Navy, French commandos have carried out two rescues this year which included some chasing down the pirates on land and giving em' what for, and the US 5th Fleet is currently patrolling the area, and the Russkies have a destroyer there too.

So all in all, might be a good time for our pirate friends to seek out other career opportunities.