INTERTANKO: Piracy is out of control

INTERTANKO said in a statement that it is delighted that the Somali pirates who hijacked the ‘Irene SL’ and her two-million-barrel oil cargo in February have released the tanker, and that the master, officers and crew are in good health after 58 days in captivity, especially after 12 days being used as a pirate mothership. At the time, INTERTANKO’s Managing Director Joe Angelo remarked that the ‘Irene SL’ hijacking marked a significant shift in Somali piracy, taking the crisis into the middle of the main sea lanes coming from the Middle East Gulf. Her crude oil cargo represented 20 percent of total US daily crude oil imports, or five percent of the total daily world seaborne oil supply.