Pirates hijack tanker, $20 million in crude

NAIROBI, Kenya | Somali pirates seized a tanker carrying more than $20 million of crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the United States in the increasingly dangerous waters off East Africa, an official said Monday, an attack that could pose a huge environmental or security threat.

The Greece-flagged Maran Centaurus was hijacked Sunday about 800 miles off the coast of Somalia, said Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force. Cmdr. Harbour said it originated from Jidda, Saudi Arabia, and was destined for the United States. The ship has 28 crew members on board, he said.

The shipping intelligence company Lloyd’s List said the Maran Centaurus is a “very large crude carrier, with a capacity of over 300,000 tons.”

Stavros Hadzigrigoris from the ship’s owners, Maran Tankers Management, said the tanker was carrying around 275,000 metric tons of crude. At an average price of around $75 a barrel, the cargo is worth more than $20 million. Mr. Hadzigrigoris declined to say who owned the oil.

Pirates have increased attacks on vessels off East Africa for the millions in ransom that can be had. Though pirates have successfully hijacked dozens of vessels the past several years, Sunday’s attack appears to be only the second ever on an oil tanker.

The hijacking of a tanker increases worries that the vessel could crash, be run aground or be involved in a firefight, said Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at London-based think tank Chatham House.

Pirates typically use guns and rocket-propelled grenades in their attacks, and some vessels now carry private security guards, but Mr. Middleton said oil tankers do not.

“You’re sitting on a huge ship filled with flammable liquid. You don’t want somebody with a gun on top of that,” Mr. Middleton said. “Financially it’s a very costly exercise because the value of oil is so volatile. If it is held for a long time and the price of oil drops, they could lose millions of dollars.”

In November 2008, pirates hijacked the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star, which held 2 million barrels of oil valued at about $100 million. The tanker was released last January for a reported $3 million ransom after a two-month drama that helped galvanize international efforts to fight piracy off Africa’s coast.

Somali pirates are a separate group of criminals from the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic militants who control large areas of southern Somalia, but anytime pirates hold such valuable and explosive cargo, it raises international concerns.

Somalia’s lawless 1,880-mile coastline provides a perfect haven for pirates to prey on ships heading for the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. The impoverished Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government for years, and the weak U.N.-backed administration is too busy fighting the Islamist insurgency to arrest pirates.

Pirates now hold about a dozen vessels hostage and more than 200 crew members.