Pirates Hijack Oil Supertanker Off East Africa
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: November 18, 2008
DUBAI - Somali pirates have captured a fully laden Saudi supertanker far off
east Africa, seizing the biggest vessel ever hijacked with a cargo of oil
worth over $100 million in an attack that pushed world crude prices higher.
The US Fifth Fleet said the Sirius Star was being taken to the pirate haven
of Eyl, in northern Somalia, on Monday.
The hijacking of the Saudi Aramco-owned vessel on Sunday is certain to add
to pressure for concerted international action to tackle the growing threat
posed by pirates from anarchic Somalia to one of the world's busiest
shipping routes.
"This is unprecedented. It's the largest ship that we've seen pirated," said
Lt Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the Fifth Fleet. "It's three times
the size of an aircraft carrier."
The Sirius Star held as much as two million barrels of oil -- more than one
quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily exports. The hijacking helped lift global
oil prices over $1 to more than $58 a barrel, although they later lost some
gains.
The hijacking on Sunday, 450 nautical miles (830 km) southeast of Mombasa,
Kenya, was in an area far beyond the Gulf of Aden, where most of the attacks
on shipping have taken place and where foreign navies have begun patrols.
Navy Adm Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggested
military intervention would be complicated by hostages and ransom demands.
"I'm stunned by the range of it," said Mullen, telling reporters at the
Pentagon that distance from the African coast was the longest he had seen to
date.
"Once they get to a point where they can board, it becomes very difficult to
get them off because, clearly, now they hold hostages."
The Sirius Star had been heading for the United States via the Cape of Good
Hope at the southern tip of Africa, skirting the continent instead of
heading through the Gulf of Aden and then the Suez Canal.
The ship, at 318,000 deadweight tons, was the largest ever captured by
pirates.
CHAOS SPAWNS PIRACY
There were no reports of damage, Christensen said. He declined to say if the
US navy was considering taking action to rescue the tanker, which had 25
crew from Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia.
Chaos onshore in Somalia, where Islamist forces are fighting a
Western-backed government, has spawned a wave of piracy. Shipowners have
paid out millions of dollars in ransoms.
Northern Somalia's breakaway Puntland region, where Eyl is located, was on
the lookout for the ship.
"It has not entered Puntland's waters so far," Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf, the
assistant minister for fisheries, told Reuters.
The International Maritime Bureau, a piracy watchdog, said there had been 92
pirate attacks off Somalia this year and 36 of the ships had been hijacked.
Fourteen ships are still controlled by pirates and 243 crewmembers are being
held.
"This is a very significant event because it is the largest vessel taken by
far and also the distance away from Somalia is the highest, it shows the
pirates are ranging very far from their base to take them," said IMB
director Capt. Pottengal Mukundan.
The hijacks have driven up shipping insurance premiums and pushed some
vessels to take longer routes to bypass the Suez Canal -- potentially
increasing the cost of traded goods.
Among the vessels seized is one with 33 tanks on board.
British think-tank Chatham House warned in a report last month of the danger
a tanker could come under attack.
"As pirates become bolder and use ever more powerful weaponry a tanker could
be set on fire, sunk or forced ashore, any of which could result in an
environmental catastrophe that would devastate marine and bird life for
years to come," it said.
The NATO alliance and the European Union have scrambled to provide patrols
in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean waterways off Somalia. The United
States and France, which have bases nearby, are also helping, while Russia
has sent a warship too.
The Sirius Star is Liberian-flagged, and owned and operated by state oil
giant Saudi Aramco's shipping unit Vela International. The vessel was
launched in March.
(Additional reporting by Luke Pachymuthu in Dubai, Abdiqani Hassan in
Bossaso, Stefano Ambrogi and Dave Cutler in London, David Clarke in Nairobi;
Editing by Giles Elgood)
Story by Raissa Kasolowsky and Simon Webb
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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