The West of England P&I Club has launched a piracy insurance policy for shipowners just as there appears to be a resurgence of hijacking attempts off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden.

The policy will cover shipowners in an area identified as at risk from piracy attacks, known as a war and piracy breach area.

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It is designed to include issues that are not covered by typical war risk policies, including ransoms, loss of ransom in transit, the cost of specialist response consultants and legal experts, and loss of hire, even for a few hours.

Victims will have access to crisis response team Crisis24 and HFW, which is a leading law firm in the resolution of ship hijackings and ransoms.

“West Piracy Protection responds to the reality of the evolving piracy threat faced by owners in such locations as the Gulf of Aden and the Gulf of Guinea,” said head of product development Richard Turner.

The West of England’s deputy head of underwriting Mark Matthews said: “We have created an innovative product that addresses a number of needs in the market where existing cover falls short.”

The policy is the latest expansion of insurance lines from the club, which recently branched out into hull and machinery, cyber, war risk and delay cover.

Somalian piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean terrorised commercial shipping between 2008 and 2011.

Sounding the alarm

There have been very few cases until December last year when the 41,600-dwt bulk carrier Ruen (built 2016) and its crew were hijacked and taken to the Puntland region of Somalia.

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That incident was followed by unsuccessful attempts to hijack the 20,000-dwt tanker Central Park (built 2015) and the 170,100-dwt bulker Lila Norfolk (built 2006).

The International Maritime Bureau, which monitors global piracy, warned: “Somali pirates still retain the capability and capacity to carry out attacks far from the coast.”

There have been continued piracy incidents in the Gulf of Guinea off West Africa. Most recently, crew members were taken from the 13,000-dwt tanker Hana I (built 2007) on 1 January.