Somali Pirates: Were innocent fishermen killed by counter-pirate forces?

Bloomberg report, "Fighting Piracy Goes Awry With Killings of Fishermen", in which it is alleged that "Russian soldiers" riding a Norwegian ship fired upon and killed a Yemeni fisherman:

From 500 meters (1,640 feet) away, gunshots erupted from the tanker toward Quanas’s skiff and its unarmed fishermen. Two rounds pierced the water on the motorboat’s starboard side, and a third slammed into Quanas’s face, just under his right eye, according to survivors on the boat and a Yemeni Coast Guard investigation. As the bullet came through the back of his neck, Quanas moaned, held out a hand, collapsed and died.
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Russian soldiers aboard the Norwegian-flagged ship fired the bullets that August day, according to a report from a private security team that was also on the tanker. The soldiers had been temporarily assigned to the Nordic Fighter by their country’s navy to protect the vessel as part of a Russia-led convoy navigating toward the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, which some 23,000 ships use to move goods between Europe and Asia annually.
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Quanas, who was about 38 when he died, is one of at least seven Yemeni fishermen who have been shot and among five killed since 2009 by soldiers assigned to deter pirates, according to records supplied by the Arabian Peninsula nation.
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The Russian Navy denies responsibility for Quanas’s death, as does the company that owns the Nordic Fighter.

This incident is reported to have occurred in the Red Sea, placing it in interesting jurisdictional territory.

No one is being prosecuted, a noted in the Bloomberg piece:

Generally, incidents in international waters are governed by laws of a ship’s flag state, says Christoph Hasche, managing partner of Fleet Hamburg, a law firm specialized in international shipping and trade.

Prosecutors in Norway decided against opening an investigation, in part because of the hurdles in taking soldiers to trial, says Siri Frigaard, chief public prosecutor and director of the Norwegian National Authority for Prosecution of Organized and Other Serious Crime. She said information in the file indicated the Russian soldiers fired their weapons, but declined to provide other details, citing Norwegian police secrecy laws.

While the piece asserts that such incidents are "likely" in a sea with lots of armed men protecting ships from other armed men, it avoids placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Somali pirates, whose actions, after all, are the primary reason all those armed men protecting ships are out there.

Global Energy: Russian Offshore Exploration

Reported by Ocean News, announced planned offshore Russia oil and gas exploration, including in the Barents Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk here:

Statoil will fund 100% of costs in the exploration phase, which includes an obligatory work program of six wildcat wells to be drilled during the period 2016-2021.

A fiscal reform package providing incentives for the development of Russian offshore , including through geological survey, was outlined in a Russian government decree of April 2012. Enactment and implementation of these measures will facilitate the conduct of more capital intensive exploration work.

According to this,

The Shareholder and Operating Agreements are identical for the four license areas. Rosneft will have an equity share of 66.67% in each of the operating joint ventures and Statoil´s share will be 33.33%. Statoil will fund 100% of costs in the exploration phase, which includes an obligatory work program of six wildcat wells to be drilled during the period 2016-2021.

Statoil is a Norwegian company with world-wide operations. Rosneft is a Russian company, 75% state owned.

More:

The Perseevsky license block is located in the western part of the Barents Sea. Prospective recoverable resources stand at over 2 bln toe.

The Magadan 1, Lisyansky and Kashevarovsky license blocks are located in the northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk. Prospective recoverable resources at these fields stand at over 1.4 bln toe.

One more step in the Arctic.