After hitting a 25 year low last year, oil piracy came back in a big way in 2020, with pirates moving dangerously close to US waters.
Piracy is an age-old problem in the energy industry, often seen in West Africa and other regions of the world. However, following the rise of the phenomenon during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, pirates are nearing US shores, presenting a new threat to the industry. Slow-moving oil tankers in the region present an easy target for pirates looking for a ransom opportunity. This has become an increasingly common event in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche, the origin of a significant proportion of US oil, providing around 17 percent of the country’s crude oil and five percent of its natural gas.
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