Last month a shipping company got in touch with me to tell me about the recent re-routing of three important UK-bound vessels from South Korea which should have used the Suez Canal but were sent via the Cape of Good Hope instead. The reason for the costly re-direction and consequent delay in the arrival of these vessels was to avoid the risk of meeting Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The three ships in question are to be used at one of the UK's most important gas import terminals.
Since then I have been using written and oral parliamentary questions to try to find out if the UK Government has any clear strategy in place for tackling the growing threat of piracy in this strategically important part of the world. Last week when I asked a question on this subject to the Energy Secretary he replied with a vague reference to piracy being considered "at an EU level". For those of us who are concerned about the security of oil and gas shipping serving the UK, this assurance was far from adequate.
The truth is that our country is fast becoming heavily reliant on imported crude oil and natural gas. The Energy Minister confirmed to me through a parliamentary question this week that by the end of this year already the UK will be reliant on imported gas for more than a quarter of our domestic consumption. This is a sharp reversal from the position of gas self-sufficiency we were in just a few years ago.
With a growing dependency on imported energy the UK Government must demonstrate that it is putting in place additional measures to protect the ships that bring these supplies to our shores. The events of the last few days which have seen multiple hijackings by Somali pirates simply confirm the urgency and importance of this issue. When enormous oil tankers can be captured by a group of pirates it raises alarming questions about how we intend to protect our energy shipping from more sophisticated terrorist and military threats in this region.
One response I received to a question to the Defence Minister referred to a counter-piracy operation with other European countries which is due to begin in December. The punchline of the response was the phrase "subject to sufficient forces being generated".
With our own military resources over-stretched, and the willingness of EU countries to contribute forces for any operation somewhat suspect, there is a question mark over whether a naval operation can be sustained over a long period to minimise the threat of piracy and terrorism in the region. UK shipping companies will be watching closely to see what real additional security will be put in place to protect their vessels and cargoes, not just in the weeks and months ahead, but longer term as we become heavily dependent on vital energy supplies transported through these difficult and dangerous waters.
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