They are the floating goldmines and needs utmost security while moving from one place to another. Yes, pirates always fix their eyes on such ships, as they can have a very good harvest in very less effort. As the oil supplies are running low, we need to take utmost care to make sure that our precious oil resources don’t go to wrong hands.

When the Somali pirates seized an oil tanker, recently, that carried crude oil from Saudi Arabia to US, in the most dangerous part of off East Africa, it created panic around the world, as the attack could have created a huge environmental as well as security threat at the place.

Pirates had hijacked Sirius Star, a few months back. It had about 2 million barrels of oil that valued about $100 million. After giving a ransom of about $3 million ransom the ship was released later, almost after a two-month drama. But this incident managed to stir up the thoughts of people around the world, and helped in collecting the efforts to fight against pirates.

Many dangerous things can happen when pirates hijack ship with oil. One among the deadly dangerous one is a firefight, which can turn out the whole area to a hell. Pirates usually have guns, rocket propellers, grenades and all the other most modern weapons. Some vessels that carry oil usually have security guards of their own, but most of the oil tankers don’t have that.

The main reason behind it is the fear to have someone with a loaded gun on the top of a ship that’s filled with highly inflammable liquid.

Certain ships now have well trained security team who can handle evasive maneuvers and Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs, which can help in driving the pirates away.

The LRAD is a useful way to safeguard oil tankers from pirate attacks. The other forms of anti-piracy devices include fire hoses, robot boats and dazzle guns, which are often used by large vessels and container ships to fight against pirate attacks.

Nowadays the pirate attacks have become so frequent, and hence the protection of our precious oil vessels should have top priority. Or else it may go to wrong hands and they would make wrong use of it. We will have to remain in despair, about the fluctuating prices and weak demand and supply ratios, on reading the latest oil market news.

I think tanker companies threatened to alter their routes if nations didn’t control the sea lanes off Africa. It’s the shortest route to their markets but they can’t keep operating through there with pirates attacking them. Going the longer route will add quite a bit to the price of a barrel of oil.

Russia has released Somali pirates captured during the dramatic rescue of a Russian oil tanker earlier this week.

The Russian defence ministry said the gang was freed because of "imperfections" in international law.

Russia initially said the 10 pirates would be taken to Moscow to face criminal charges over the hijacking.

The Moscow University vessel was seized on Wednesday in the Gulf of Aden, off Yemen, as it sailed for China, carrying crude oil worth $50m (£33m).

The pirates were released because of "an incomplete international legal basis" to keep them detained, Col Alexei Kuznetsov was quoted by Russia's Interfax news agency as saying.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which Russia is a signatory, gives sovereign nations the right to seize and prosecute pirates.

But some countries have been reluctant to do so because of concerns of what to do with the pirates after their jail terms are up.

Asked why Russia released the pirates, Col Kuznetsov told the Associated Press news agency: "Why should we feed some pirates?"

BBCNEWS

What a pathetic joke the Russian authorites are. And the pirates go back to doing what they were doing...