Article

2008-11-21 Africa Horn

Oil Supertankers May Avoid Suez on Somalia Piracy

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Posted by john frum 2008-11-21 00:00|| || Front Page|| [2 views ] Top
File under: Pirates

#1 Oh for heaven's sake - what is civilization or colonization good for anymore.

How about convoys, escorts, raiding parties, shore bombardments, reflagging, utimata, and so on and so on.

You'd think they'd learn even as we unleash the really big weapons - global recession and/or depression - if that doesn't teach them, I'm afraid we're off to Coulterville - invade, kill and convert.

Posted by Jeremiah Thaise1218 2008-11-21 00:10|| 2008-11-21 00:10|| Front Page Top

#2 Bullsh*t
They are hyping the threat to fluff oil prices. Bush should adamantly say that pirates will feel the wrath of the USN.

Posted by Penguin 2008-11-21 00:48|| 2008-11-21 00:48|| Front Page Top

#3 Read that the Suez Canal supertanker transit fee is around $500,000 and $5B total. That's serious incentive for the Egyptians.

Posted by ed 2008-11-21 07:08|| 2008-11-21 07:08|| Front Page Top

#4 I'd say the tankers need to hire some Brothers with Pit Bulls to go medieval on these bozos.

Posted by WilliamMarcyTweed 2008-11-21 08:35|| 2008-11-21 08:35|| Front Page Top

#5 Chasing a supertanker is great fun, but what on earth would even a pit bull do if he caught one?

Separately, if tourism is Egypt's number one industry, and taxing Suez Canal shipping is number three, what is number two?

Posted by trailing wife 2008-11-21 08:48|| 2008-11-21 08:48|| Front Page Top

#6 I must be missing something. If companies are willing to spend so much money on ships, instead of paying the flipping ransom, how about some escort ships (mercenary type)? How about a couple of helicopters on a super tanker? I must be missing something. How about a Trojan horse?

Posted by Art 2008-11-21 09:24|| 2008-11-21 09:24|| Front Page Top

#7 The fact that we let pirates dictate terms to us shows that our will to protect our civilization is once again in the toilet.

Posted by DarthVader 2008-11-21 09:38|| 2008-11-21 09:38|| Front Page Top

#8 Separately, if tourism is Egypt's number one industry, and taxing Suez Canal shipping is number three, what is number two?

Collecting from the US tax payer that jiszyah Carter agreed at Camp David.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2008-11-21 09:39|| 2008-11-21 09:39|| Front Page Top

#9 Egypt's second industry might be tunnel exports on their eastern border.

Posted by Richard of Oregon 2008-11-21 10:07|| 2008-11-21 10:07|| Front Page Top

#10 Ignorance of Journalist have no cure i guess.

210000t is the maximum that Canal can take and that is very recent. Supertanker is an informal term used to describe the largest tankers.
From Wikipedia:
Today it is applied to very-large crude carriers (VLCC) and ULCCs with capacity over 250,000 DWT.

Supertankers were made because small tankers were blocked by war in Suez canal.

Posted by Uleck Ghibelline9225 2008-11-21 10:26|| 2008-11-21 10:26|| Front Page Top

#11 The fact owners say they are considering rerouting is buoying demand for derivatives used to bet on the future cost of shipping, said Ben Goggin, a broker at SSY Futures Ltd.

Derivatives were part of the cause of the financial meltdown. I smell Soros and company in the middle of this.

Posted by Thealing Borgia 122 2008-11-21 10:34|| 2008-11-21 10:34|| Front Page Top

#12 IIRC, Suez Canal fees under Nassar rose so high that going the long way around the Cape became more economical for a while. So everyone is a pirate: the Somalis, the Egyptians. They all want a piece of the action.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2008-11-21 10:44|| 2008-11-21 10:44|| Front Page Top

#13 Um, the Saudi ST was taken off the coast of Kenya. Ain't no Persian Gulf-Suez Canal route I can think of which features a Kenyan pit-stop. The fact that the *ONLY* major oil tanker taken so far was clearly on a Cape-of-Good-Hope route is almost suggestive that the pirates might not have been wanting to shit where they eat.

Posted by Mitch H.">Mitch H. 2008-11-21 12:00|| http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/]">[http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/] 2008-11-21 12:00|| Front Page Top

#14 i agree with penguin , and the saudis sending in the shabaab this could just too save face and make it look like they really aren't behind it

Posted by chris 2008-11-21 18:29|| 2008-11-21 18:29|| Front Page Top

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