Tanker: Navies won't intervene

2008-11-18 14:01

Dubai - Owners of a Saudi oil supertanker hijacked by Somali pirates grappled with how to respond on Tuesday, as navies patrolling the region said they would not intervene to stop or free the captured vessel.

With few other options, shipowners in past piracy cases have ended up paying ransoms for their ships, cargos and crew.

Nato said it would not divert any of its three warships from the Gulf of Aden, and the US Navy's 5th Fleet also said it did not expect to send ships to try to intercept the MV Sirius Star. The tanker was seized over the weekend about 450 nautical miles off the Kenyan coast, the latest in a surge of pirate attacks this year.

Never before have Somali pirates seized such a giant ship so far out to sea. The Sirius Star, with a full load of two million barrels of oil and 25 crewmembers, was being brought on Tuesday by its captors to one of the main pirate dens on the Somali coast, the port of Eyl.

Somalis on shore were stunned by the gigantic vessel - as long as an aircraft carrier - as it passed just off the coast on route to Eyl.

"As usual, I woke up at 03:00 and headed for the sea to fish, but I saw a very, very large ship anchored less than three miles (five kilometres) off the shore," said Abdinur Haji, a fisherman near Harardhere, a pirate stronghold where the ship apparently anchored overnight, some 430km by land from Eyl.

"I have been fishing here for three decades, but I have never seen a ship as big as this one," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "There are dozens of spectators on shore trying to catch a glimpse of the large ship, which they can see with their naked eyes."

'An outrageous act'

He said two small boats floated out to the ship and 18 men - presumably other pirates - climbed aboard with ropes woven into a ladder.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal on Tuesday called the hijacking "an outrageous act" and said, "piracy, like terrorism, is a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together".

Speaking during a visit to Athens, he did not elaborate on what steps, if any, the kingdom would take to better protect its vital oil tankers.

It is not known if the Sirius Star had a security team on board.

Executives from Dubai-based company that owns and operates the vessel, Vela International Marine Ltd, a subsidiary of Saudi oil company Aramco, were meeting on Tuesday and were expected to make a statement later in the day.

An earlier statement from the company said the 25 crew on board the fully loaded tanker were unharmed and that crisis teams had been set up to try to win their release and the return of the vessel.

It made no mention of a ransom or contacts with the bandits, but such companies have little choice but to pay out huge ransoms, usually totalling around one million dollars, to ensure the safety of the crew and the vessel's return.

Cargo worth $100m

The Sirius Star's cargo is worth about $100m at current prices, but the pirates have no way to unload it from the tanker.

In Vienna, Ehsan Ul-Haq, chief analyst at JBC Energy, said that the seizure was not affecting oil prices, since traders are focused instead on "the overall economy".

The latest in a surge of pirate hijackings highlighted the vulnerability of even very large ships and the inability of naval forces to intervene once bandits are on board.

The US Navy's 5th Fleet said on Tuesday it was monitoring the situation but didn't expect to send warships to surround the vessel as it has done with a Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and other weaponry the was seized off the Somali coast on September 25 and remains in pirate hands.

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, according the US Navy.

- AP