Pirates hijack massive oil tanker in show of strength
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Tuesday November 18 2008
Somali pirates pulled off their most audacious hijack to date yesterday, venturing outside their usual waters to seize a Saudi Arabian supertanker laden with two million barrels of crude, in an attack that sent oil prices higher.
The vessel -- three times the size of a US aircraft carrier -- was taken 450 miles off the coast of Kenya and well beyond the Gulf of Aden where the pirates have been stalking international shipping.
Its seizure marked a "fundamental change" in tactics, the US Navy said.
There were no reports of damage to the ship or injury to the 25 crew aboard, which includes two Britons.
But the capture of $100m worth of oil represents a dramatic show of strength from the Somali pirates who traditionally operate from speedboats, using automatic weapons and rocket launchers.
News of the hijacking pushed up the price of crude by 2pc yesterday afternoon.
The Sirius Star, owned by Saudi oil giant Aramco, was last night headed for the Somali coast, said Lieutenant Nathan Christensen from the US Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain.
"This is the furthest and largest target the pirates have taken," he said.
The coastal town of Eyl in Somalia's breakaway region of Puntland is at the epicentre of an explosion of piracy: attacks have increased dramatically, with more than 60 vessels hijacked so far this year.
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The Sirius Star, classed as a "very large crude carrier", was fully laden, with the two million barrels of oil, her owners said, meaning that the equivalent of a quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily output was in pirate hands.
There was still some confusion over the whereabouts of the vessel last night.
"It has not entered Puntland's waters so far," assistant Minister for Fisheries Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf said.
But sources in Eyl said arrival of the supertanker was being eagerly awaited. The town is already experiencing an economic boom, with new houses, cars and roads appearing in a country otherwise shattered by decades of conflict.
Bile Wadani, one of the self-proclaimed pirate leaders, predicted last week that new attacks would be launched further off the coast in defiance of increased foreign patrols in the Gulf of Aden.
The seizure of an oil tanker will add dramatically to the pressure for international action to protect one of the most valuable shipping lanes in the world.
Its capture raises the spectre of a possible "environmental disaster" in east Africa, a prospect that the British think-tank Chatham House raised in a report last month.
"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 pirates themselves claim they have been forced into attacking international shipping after the destruction of coastal fisheries.
Without an effective government for nearly two decades, Somalia has descended into a violent anarchy. ( © Independent News Service)
- Daniel Howden
