According to Bloomberg:
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) — The owners of an oil-laden Saudi Arabian supertanker hijacked off the coast of Somalia are in talks with pirates over a ransom.
Negotiators are aboard the Sirius Star, a man identifying himself as Farah Abd Jameh, a member of the group that hijacked the tanker, said in an audio tape aired today by Al Jazeera.
He didn’t say how much money his group wants to free the vessel, which belongs to Saudi Arabia’s state-owned shipping line, Vela International Marine Ltd, and is carrying more than 2 million barrels of crude valued at $110 million.
Read the full article at Bloomberg
- This oil tanker was hijacked by Somalia pirates, it was believed that the Somalia pirates had boosted their hijacking activities previously had seized the Faina, a Belize-flagged vessel with a crew of 17 Ukrainians, three Russians and one Latvian, on Sept. 25, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. It was carrying at least 30 Soviet-designed T-72 battle tanks to Kenya.
Since January 2008, at least 91 vessels have been attacked in the Gulf of Aden, an area of 1 million square miles (2.6 million square kilometers) flanked by Yemen and Somalia and leading to the Suez Canal.
Since then, both Indian and British naval ships have engaged pirates in combat and commandos from France freed two French nationals held by hijackers.
The oil price very obviously had spiked to the highest of $55.34 and since then dropped back to the $54.10 now.
2 million barrels of crude is more then 1% of the global world oil demand per DAY.
My personal speculation is these pirates had hired military trained marines or had trained very well to pull off such increased in pirate activities.
That may also means “Mercenary” may be involved…well trained ex-military turned pirates due to economic crisis together with a ship load of Soviet-designed T-72 battle tanks and probably other weapons that armed these pirates to the teeth.
This may mean a higher chance of sudden spike in well armed piracy to spread around the world to hijack ships that hold very very expensive cargo such as military weapons, oil, natural gas, manufacturing goods, food and very likely move on to luxury liners for the rich and famous.
Will the world find themselves threatened by pirates more frightening then invisible terrorist?
These pirates placed these hijacked super size tankers and ships openly in the public anchored near Harardhare, a town in Somalia’s semi-autonomous northern Puntland region, why nobody move in and totally eliminate these pirates?
If the oil tanker ransom got paid…what will the pirates hijack next?
It won’t be long to see these pirates get enough money to hire more sophiscated mercenaries that can use those weapons hijacked by these pirates!
This probably set a fantastic background story for the next James Bond Movie…but this is the real life we are facing and not some Hollywood movie plot.
Stay tune for the next actions by unlikely cooperation of the Russian’s & U.S. to combat these Somali pirates.
We shall see some “fireworks” at these region very soon….
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