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Owner of hijacked Saudi tanker says crew safe
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-18 17:25 DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The owner of a Saudi oil supertanker hijacked by Somali pirates over the weekend said the 25 crew members are safe and the ship is fully loaded with crude-a cargo worth about $100 million at current prices. Dubai-based Vela International Marine Ltd., a subsidiary of Saudi oil company Aramco, said in a statement Monday that company response teams have been set up and are working to ensure the release of the crew and the vessel.
The US Navy said the MV Sirius Star was seized far off the coast of Kenya on Saturday and that the bandits were taking the ship to a Somali port known as a hub of pirate activity.
Attacks by Somali pirates have surged this year as bandits have become bolder, better armed and capable of operating hundreds of miles from shore. A coalition of warships from eight nations, as well as from NATO and the US Navy's 5th Fleet, is patrolling a critical zone in the Gulf of Aden leading to and from the Suez Canal. That's where most of the more than 80 attacks this year have occurred. The Saudi tanker, however, was seized far to the south of the patrolled zone, about 450 nautical miles (833 kilometers) southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, according the US Navy. Maritime security experts said they have tracked a southward spread in piracy over the last several weeks into a vast area of the Indian Ocean, noting with alarm that the area would be almost impossible to patrol. The US Navy's 5th Fleet said Tuesday it was monitoring the situation but didn't take expect to send warships to surround the vessel as it has done with a Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and other weaponry which was seized off the Somali coast on September 25 and remains in pirate hands. "I don't anticipate any US ships on station," said Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the 5th Fleet, speaking from its headquarters in Bahrain. He would not elaborate on how the Navy was watching the hijacked tanker. "We remain deeply concerned because this attack represents a fundamental change in pirates' ability to hijack bigger vessels farther out at sea," Christensen said. The Sirius Star is the largest ship ever taken by Somali pirates, though large chemical tankers and freighters have also been hijacked. It is "the largest pirated vessel in the region" to date, Christensen said. At 1,080 feet (329 meters), it is the length of an aircraft carrier and can carry about 2 million barrels of oil. "We are very concerned that a (ship) of this size has been hijacked. We have safety concerns, security concerns, environmental concerns," said Noel Choong, the head of the International Maritime Bureau's regional piracy center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. "Of course, as long as there is no firm deterrent, pirates will continue to attack. The risk is low and returns are extremely high. You will see more and more of such attacks," he told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Vela, the ship's owner and operator, is one of the largest crude oil tanker companies in the world. Including the Sirius Star, Vela owns and operates a fleet of 19 vessels classed as Very Large Crude Oil Carriers. It uses the ships to transport supplies primarily between the Middle East, Europe and the US Gulf Coast, according to the company's Web site. The Sirius Star was sailing under a Liberian flag and its crew includes citizens of Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia. A British Foreign Office spokesman said there were at least two British nationals on board. |
