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(JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia) Pirates captured a Saudi-owned supertanker loaded with more than US$100 million worth of crude oil off the coast of Kenya, seizing the largest ship ever hijacked, US Navy officials said on Monday.
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Late yesterday, it was believed to have anchored off the coast of Somalia, with the crew safe.
The hijacking follows a string of increasingly brazen attacks by Somali pirates in recent months, but this appears to be the first time pirates have seized a full oil tanker.
'This is unprecedented,' Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the 5th Fleet, told Reuters. 'It's the largest ship that we've seen pirated. It's three times the size of an aircraft carrier.'
The 1,080-foot ship was carrying two million barrels of oil, according to its owner, Vela International, a subsidiary of the Saudi Arabia-based oil giant Saudi Aramco.
The attack came despite an increased naval presence off the Somali coast, where most of the recent hijackings have taken place. The pirates are generally heavily armed, and travel in speedboats equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment.
The supertanker, Sirius Star, was hijacked more than 830 km south-east of Mombasa, Kenya, Navy officials said.
That is far to the south of most recent attacks, suggesting that the pirates may be expanding their range in an effort to avoid the multinational naval patrols plying the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea.
Shipping operations between Europe and Asia could be hit hard if the attacks spread further northwards towards the Gulf.
Singapore Shipping Association executive director Daniel Tan fears that the latest incident could encourage other roving groups of insurgents operating off the northern coasts of east Africa.
'If that happens, ships transiting through the Gulf of Aden, which would be headed either east or west, could be impacted,' Mr Tan told BT yesterday.
Piracy has increased sharply this year, with more than 80 ships attacked so far off the Somali coast, 36 of them successfully hijacked, according to the International Maritime Bureau, a piracy watchdog agency based in Kuala Lumpur. Among those hijacked, 14 ships with over 200 crew members are still being held.
'I'm stunned by the range of it,' said Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a news conference in Washington. The ship's distance from the coast was 'the longest distance I've seen for any of these incidents'. he said.
Even though the spot price of oil remained soft at at around US$55 per barrel on most major markets, there could be an impact if the piracy spreads, warned Mr Tan.
'The shipping community would naturally be concerned about the rise of copycat acts of piracy, if these guys manage to pull off an act of this magnitude,' he said.
Piracy gained a new level of international attention in September, when a Ukrainian freighter packed with tanks, anti-aircraft guns and other heavy weapons was captured. That freighter is still under pirate control.
Despite more aerial reconnaissance in the area, the pirates have proved resilient. There have been several attacks in the past week alone. On Tuesday, several people were killed when British sailors battled pirates to thwart an attack on a Danish shipping vessel, US Navy officials said.
Most ships do not have heavy security, while the pirates are fast and well armed. They pull up alongside the larger vessels, leap on board using ladders or grappling hooks, and hold the crew at gunpoint.
The ransom payments have been rising. Only a few years ago, the average ransom was in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 2008, they have mostly ranged from half a million to two million dollars.
The pirates' profits are set to reach a record US$50 million in 2008, Somali officials say. Shipping firms are usually prepared to pay, since the sums are still low compared with the value of the ships. -- NYT, with additional reporting by Ven Sreenivasan
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