Somali pirates seize Saudi oil tanker
November 17, 2008 by SwizStick
Filed under Seafreight, Security
According to news reports, it is the largest vessel the pirates have ever seized as well as the furthest out to sea they have successfully struck. It’s all over the news, but I’ll leave you with this report from the International Herald Tribune:
The tanker, owned by the Saudi oil company Aramco, is 330 meters, or about 1,100 feet, long, or the length of an aircraft carrier, and can carry about 2 million barrels of oil. Fully loaded, the ship’s cargo could be worth about $100 million. But the pirates would have no way of selling the oil or refining it in Somalia.
Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, said the Sirius Star was carrying crude at the time of the hijacking, but he did not know how much.
There were no reports of damage to the ship, Christensen said. He declined to say if the U.S. Navy was considering taking action to rescue the tanker.
The ship was sailing under a Liberian flag and its 25-member 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 aboard the vessel.
The Sirius Star was attacked more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, the U.S. 5th Fleet said. The capturing of the oil tanker represents a “fundamental shift in the ability of pirates to be able to attack merchant vessels,” Christensen said.
I wonder what the Saudi response to this will be. As usual, EagleSpeak has much, much more. He notes that according to one report, that he links to, that
the ship was not bound through the Gulf of Aden but was headed around the Cape of Good Hope and was nabbed 450 miles off the coast of Kenya. These are somewhat remarkable developments, as is the capture of such a large vessel.
He has lots more on the recent developments of Somalia piracy here:
Somalia Pirates: New south Somalia group?
And in what could be a damaging development for the Suez canal and worldwide shipping in general:
Somali Pirates: Shipping Company Will Avoid Gulf of Aden
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