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Nairobi, Kenya, December 5, 2009 – An oil tanker
bound for the United States that was hijacked by Somali pirates was
traveling outside a recommended maritime corridor, the commander of the
EU Naval Force said Tuesday.
The Greek-flagged tanker Maran Centaurus was carrying more than $20
million of crude oil when pirates captured it Sunday.
Rear Adm. Peter Hudson said Tuesday he does not advise vessels to have
armed guards on board, and that flammable cargo and firearms don't mix.
Hudson also said the fact that pirates are now attacking ships 1,000
miles (1,600 kilometers) off the Somali coast presents a large challenge
and that the EU force will never fully secure such a large area of
ocean.
Twenty percent of global shipping — including 8 percent of global oil
shipments — is funneled into the narrow, pirate-infested Gulf of Aden
that leads through the Red Sea to the Suez Canal. The route is bordered
on one side by the failed state of Somalia and on the other by the
increasingly unstable country of Yemen.
Somalia's lawless 1,880-mile coastline has become a pirate haven. The
impoverished Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government
for a generation and the weak U.N.-backed administration is too busy
fighting an Islamist insurgency to go after pirates. Pirates now hold
about a dozen vessels hostage and more than 200 crew members.
The Maran Centaurus is carrying around 275,000 metric tons of crude,
said Stavros Hadzigrigoris, from the ship's owners Maran Tankers
Management. At current market rates the oil would be worth just over $20
million.
The ship has 9 Greeks, 16 Filipinos, 2 Ukrainians, and a Romanian
aboard. Granberg said the ship's owner reported the crew was not injured
in the attack.
The vessel is only the second oil tanker captured by Somali pirates. The
Saudi-owned Sirius Star was hijacked a year ago, leading to heightened
international efforts to fight piracy off the Horn of Africa. That
hijacking ended with a $3 million ransom payment. The ship held 2
million barrels of oil valued at about $100 million and was released
last January.
Source: AP, Dec. 01, 2009
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