Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The Somali pirates who hijacked an oil-laden Saudi Arabian supertanker said they may reduce their demand for a $25 million ransom and vowed to defend themselves if an attempt is made to free the ship.
“Negotiations are smoothly ongoing between us,” Abdi Salan Ahmed, a pirates’ representative, said in a telephone interview today from Harardhere, a northern Somali town controlled by Islamist militias near the ship’s anchorage. “There may be some type of ransom reduction but I can’t confirm it now.”
The tanker, the Sirius Star, belongs to Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Vela International Ltd. and is carrying 2 million barrels of oil valued at about $110 million. It was hijacked Nov. 15 about 420 nautical miles (778 kilometers) off Somalia, along with 25 crew members from Britain, Poland, Croatia and Saudi Arabia.
Spurred by the willingness of ship owners to pay ransoms, hijackings in the Gulf of Aden region and elsewhere leaped this year. Some 581 crew members were taken hostage worldwide from January to September, compared with 172 during the same period in 2007, the International Maritime Bureau says. Ransoms have grown to more than $1 million per ship on average, compared with tens of thousands of dollars a few years ago.
Yemeni Vessel Hijacked
Somali pirates hijacked another ship in the Arabian Sea, a Yemeni cargo vessel, the Associated Press reported today.
The hijacking of the Saudi Arabian-owned oil tanker, the largest vessel ever seized, may prompt Western and Arab countries to get tougher.
Last week, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said it is reassessing its operations in the region; Russia said it’s likely to add to its one ship in the area; Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said his country would contribute to the NATO force, though he didn’t specify how.
There are currently 15 warships in the region, including four NATO vessels, and ships from India, Malaysia and Russia. The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan has a task force in the area and a European Union fleet is expected to reach the zone next month. The navies of India, Russia, Britain and Germany have all battled pirate vessels in the last 14 days alone.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said the union’s mission -- called Atalanta and involving five or six warships -- “will have rules of engagement that will be robust and all means to protect, to deter, and will include the use of force,” at a news conference in Brussels today, Agence France- Presse reported.
Diverting Vessels
Frontline Ltd., the world’s largest operator of supertankers, is talking with “a few” oil companies about diverting vessels from the Suez Canal to avoid the pirates, Jens Martin Jensen, interim chief executive officer of the company’s Oslo-based management unit, said by phone today.
A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, Europe’s largest shipping line, said Nov. 20 it would halt shipments through the Gulf of Aden, which is flanked by Somalia and Yemen and leads to the Suez Canal. TMT Co. Ltd., BW Shipping Managers Pte and Euronav NV are also considering diverting deliveries.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance isn’t considering using a naval blockade to combat piracy, after maritime companies called for action.
“As far as NATO is concerned this is not in the cards,” he said at a news conference in Brussels today. Security Council resolutions “do not include these kinds of actions.”
Peter Swift of the London-based International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (Intertanko) had suggested that the UN should coordinate naval action off Somalia, AFP reported.
Higher Costs
Customers hiring very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, pay about $1.95 a barrel to ship oil to Europe from the Persian Gulf around South Africa, compared with about $1.20 through the Suez Canal, Bloomberg calculations show.
Sheikh Abdulaahi Osman, a commander of the Islamic Courts Union group in Harardhere, which is located in the semi- autonomous Puntland region, yesterday warned the pirates holding the Saudi ship they face armed conflict if they don’t release it.
“Saudi is a Muslim country and it is a very big crime to hold Muslim property,” Osman said. “I warned again and again those who hold the ship must free it unconditionally.”
The Somali pirates have taken the Sirius Star farther out to sea, anchoring it 16 miles north of Harardhere, U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet spokesman Lieutenant Nate Christensen said by telephone from Bahrain today. The Fifth Fleet hasn’t had any communication with the pirates or the ship, he added.
Extra Militiamen
Last week, extra militiamen began arriving in Harardhere to help the pirates holding the ship to bolster their defenses.
Negotiations between Vela and the pirates may end in three or four days, with the raiders possibly accepting a ransom of between $6 million and $7 million, Asharq al-Awsat reported, citing an unidentified person close to the talks.
“We are confident the tribal elders are capable of persuading these persons to back down on their demands and release the tanker because Somali society is a tribal one, ruled by traditions and anyone who rejects these is ostracized,” Nabil Khalaf Ashur, Saudi envoy to Kenya, told the Saudi-owned newspaper.
Vela has declined to comment on the ransom demand or the negotiations. The Saudi foreign minister confirmed that talks were under way last week.
The Sirius Star was bound for St. Eustatius in the Caribbean Sea on its original course.(source)
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