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Pirates hijack oil supertanker off east Africa
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-18 16:09

CHAOS SPAWNS PIRACY

There were no reports of damage, Christensen said. He declined to say if the US navy was considering taking action to rescue the tanker, which had 25 crew from Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia.

Chaos onshore in Somalia, where Islamist forces are fighting a Western-backed government, has spawned a wave of piracy. Shipowners have paid out millions of dollars in ransoms.


Saudi-owned crude oil supertanker Sirius Star is seen in this undated handout released to Reuters November 17, 2008. The supertanker, hijacked by pirates with a $100 million oil cargo in the largest ever such seizure, has reached the coast of north Somalia, a regional maritime group said on Tuesday. [Agencies] 

Northern Somalia's breakaway Puntland region, where Eyl is located, was on the lookout for the ship.

"It has not entered Puntland's waters so far," Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf, the assistant minister for fisheries, told Reuters.

The International Maritime Bureau, a piracy watchdog, said there had been 92 pirate attacks off Somalia this year and 36 of the ships had been hijacked. Fourteen ships are still controlled by pirates and 243 crew members are being held.

"This is a very significant event because it is the largest vessel taken by far and also the distance away from Somalia is the highest, it shows the pirates are ranging very far from their base to take them," said IMB director Capt. Pottengal Mukundan.

The hijacks have driven up shipping insurance premiums and pushed some vessels to take longer routes to bypass the Suez Canal -- potentially increasing the cost of traded goods.

Among the vessels seized is one with 33 tanks on board.

British think-tank Chatham House warned in a report last month of the danger a tanker could come under attack.

"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 NATO alliance and the European Union have scrambled to provide patrols in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean waterways off Somalia. The United States and France, which have bases nearby, are also helping, while Russia has sent a warship too.

The Sirius Star is Liberian-flagged, and owned and operated by state oil giant Saudi Aramco's shipping unit Vela International. The vessel was launched in March.