Can an Act of Piracy be Committed Against an Offshore Petroleum Installation?

• Author: Mikhail Kashubsky
• Position: Mikhail Kashubsky (BA, LLB, LLM, PhD) is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Customs & Excise Studies (CCES), University of Canberra and Head of Secretariat of the International Network of Customs Universities (INCU) Email:mikhail.kashubsky@canberra.edu.au
• Pages: 163-171

(2012) 26 A&NZ Mar LJ

163

CAN AN ACT OF PIRACY BE COMMITTED AGAINST AN OFFSHORE

PETROLEUM INSTALLATION?

Mikhail Kashubsky

1 Introduction

Acts of piracy are of tremendous concern to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the

international shipping community.

1 Piracy has a long history. It has been a challenge for maritime transport for

hundreds of years.2 In recent years, piracy has also become a concern to the offshore petroleum industry.

The rules on piracy have been developed in customary international law and found their way into modern

conventional law. However, piracy remains a difficult legal concept.3 In the context of the security and

protection of offshore petroleum installations, one of the first questions is whether the law of piracy applies to

offshore installations.4

2 Threat of Piracy to Offshore Petroleum Installations

Piracy is regarded as a security threat to offshore petroleum installations,5 and there have been several reported

piracy attacks on offshore installations.6 As argued by Hansen, ‘[i]n understanding maritime security threats

from groups conducting unlawful acts, it is important to understand their motivation, organizational structure

and tactics’.7 In assessing piracy as a security threat to offshore petroleum installations, this paper considers

geographical and other enabling factors relating to piracy, as well as motivations and objectives, offshore

capabilities and tactics of perpetrators, taking into account past piracy attacks involving offshore petroleum

installations.

2.1 Geography and Enabling Factors

Piracy is a security threat that is usually defined by geography.8 It requires the presence of other factors such as

an unstable political environment, weak government, low level of economic development, poverty, social or

cultural acceptability, lack of effective law enforcement, and the opportunity for reward in order to prosper.9 As

observed by Fort, ‘piracy overlays seamlessly onto this template of transnational threats with the maritime

domain providing an environment ripe for exploitation’.10 Relatively few places offer such a combination of

factors. These include parts of Southeast Asia, parts of Africa, and some parts of South America. While the

majority of the world’s maritime piracy has occurred in Asia, by 2007 the Gulf of Guinea had emerged as an

important locality for piracy and attacks on offshore installations which represents an expansion of this threat to

 Mikhail Kashubsky (BA, LLB, LLM, PhD) is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Customs & Excise Studies (CCES), University of

Canberra and Head of Secretariat of the International Network of Customs Universities (INCU) Email:mikhail.kashubsky@canberra.edu.au.

1 International Maritime Organization (IMO), Pira cy and Armed Robbery against Ships < http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Security/

PiracyArmedRobbery/Pages/Default.aspx>, 3 September 2012.

2 Smith, S, (Speech presented by Warren Snowdon on behalf of Stephen Smith at the Counter-Piracy Conference, Perth, 16 July 2012)

printed in Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Calming Troubled Waters: Globa l and Regional Strategies for Countering P iracy (Special

Report No 47, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, August 2012), 3.

3 O’Connell, D, The International Law of the Sea (Vol 2, 1983-84), 966.

4 Kessler, C, ‘Legal Issues in Protecting Offshore Structures’ Pr ofessional Paper No 146, Center for Naval Analyses (June 1976), 18.

5 See, for example, Lindsay, M, ‘The Security Threat to Oil Companies In and Out of Conflict Zones’ (2005) 3(2) Explora tion and

Production: The Oil and Gas Review http://www.touchoilandgas.com/security-threat-companies-conflict-a688-1.html>, 30 October 2008;

Elliott, R, ‘Piracy on the High Seas’ (2007) 51(6) Security Management 40, 40-41.

6 See Kashubsky, M, ‘A Chronology of Attacks on and Unlawful Interferences with, Offshore Oil and Gas Installations, 1975-2010’, (2011)

5(5-6) Perspectives on Terror ism, 139.

7 Hansen, H, ‘Distinctions in the Finer Shades of Gray: The “Four Circles Model” for Maritime Security Threat Assessment’ in Herbert-

Burns, R, Bateman, S, and Lehr, P (Eds), Lloyd’s MIU Handbook of Maritime Security (2008), 73, 75. Hansen further suggests (ibid, 82)

that the significance of the distinction and inter-relationship between different threats is important ‘from the perspective of industries,

governments, and international organizations that confront these groups’.

8 Shie, T, ‘Ports in a Storm? The Nexus Between Counterterrorism, Counterproliferation, and Maritime Security in Southeast Asia’ (2004)

4(4) Issues & Insights, 1, 14.

9 See Murphy, M, ‘Contemporary Piracy and Maritime Terrorism’ (2007) 47(338) Adelphi Papers , 1, 15–17; Banlaoi, R, ‘Maritime Security

Outlook for Southeast Asia’ in Ho, J and Raymond, C (Eds), The Best of Times, the Worst of Times (2005), 59, 62–3; Balaga, T, ‘Is Piracy a

Threat to Australian Seaborne Trade?’, (2009) 27 Pap ers in Australian Maritime Affairs, 311, 316.

10 Fort, B, ‘Transnational Threats and the Maritime Domain’ in Ong-Webb, G, (Ed), Pir acy, Maritime Terrorism and Securing the Mala cca

Straits (2006), 23, 28.