MOGADISHU, Somalia — Pirates who seized a Saudi supertanker loaded with two million barrels of crude oil anchored the ship within sight of impoverished Somali fishing villages Tuesday, while the U.S. and other naval forces decided — for now — against intervention.
Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that it will join the international fight against piracy, and Somali officials vowed to try to rescue the ship by force if necessary.
But with few other options, shipowners in past piracy cases have ended up paying ransoms for their ships, cargoes and crew.
NATO said it would not divert any of its three warships from the Gulf of Aden and the U.S. navy’s 5th Fleet also said it did not expect to send ships to try to intercept the Sirius Star. The tanker was seized over the weekend, some 830 kilometres off the Kenyan coast, the latest in a surge of pirate attacks this year.
Never before have Somali pirates seized such a giant ship so far out to sea — and never a vessel so large.
Abdullkadir Musa, the deputy sea port minister in northern Somalia’s breakaway Puntland region, said that if the ship tries to anchor anywhere near Eyl — where the U.S. said it was heading — then his forces will rescue it.
But the ship was anchored Tuesday in Harardhere, a pirate stronghold some 425 kilometres by land from Eyl.
Somalis on shore were stunned by the gigantic vessel — as long as an aircraft carrier at 330 metres— as it passed just off the coast on route to Eyl.
“As usual, I woke up at 3 a.m. and headed for the sea to fish, but I saw a very, very large ship anchored less than three miles off the shore,” said Abdinur Haji, a fisherman near Harardhere, a pirate stronghold where the ship apparently anchored overnight.
“I have been fishing here for three decades, but I have never seen a ship as big as this one,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “There are dozens of spectators on shore trying to catch a glimpse of the large ship, which they can see with their naked eyes.”
He said two small boats floated out to the ship and 18 men — presumably other pirates — climbed aboard with ropes woven into a ladder.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal on Tuesday called the hijacking “an outrageous act” and said, “piracy, like terrorism, is a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together.” Speaking during a visit to Athens, Greece, he did not elaborate on what steps, if any, the kingdom would take to better protect its vital oil tankers.
Saud said Saudi Arabia would join an international initiative against piracy in the Red Sea area, where more than 80 pirate attacks have been registered this year, although he did not say how.
It is not known if the Sirius Star had a security team on board.
Executives from Dubai-based company that owns and operates the vessel, Vela International Marine Ltd., a subsidiary of the Saudi oil giant Aramco, were meeting Tuesday and were expected to make a statement later in the day.
An earlier statement from the company said the 25 crew were unharmed and that crisis teams had been set up to try to win their release and the return of the vessel.
It made no mention of a ransom or contacts with the bandits, but such companies have little choice but to pay out huge ransoms, usually totalling around $1 million, to ensure the safety of the crew and the vessel’s return.
The Sirius Star’s cargo is worth about $120 million at current prices, but the pirates have no way to unload it from the tanker.
In Vienna, Ehsan Ul-Haq, chief analyst at JBC Energy, said the seizure was not affecting oil prices, since traders are focused instead on “the overall economy.”
The U.S. navy said the hijacking took place Saturday. The statement posted on Vela’s website said the ship was hijacked Sunday. The discrepancy could not immediately be explained.
The Sirius Star’s 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 on board.