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Somalia: Aramco says it will negotiate with pirates over seized oil tanker
 (AKI) - Saudi oil giant Aramco, whose subsidiary Vela International owns the hijacked supertanker Sirus Star said on Wednesday it would make contact with the Somali pirates who seized the ship on Saturday. The pirates have demanded a ransom for the release of the tanker, the largest one ever hijacked, which has a 25-member crew on board and is fully loaded with two million barrels of oil worth over 100 million dollars. The vessel is now anchored off the Somali coast."During the course of the day we will make contact with the Somalis and negotiate the release of our oil tanker," Aramco said in a statement quoted by Arabic satellite TV channel Al-Arabiya. The pirates in an audio tape released on Wednesday demanded a ransom in exchange for the release of the Sirius Star and its crew, an unspecified and negotiable sum that could reportedly reach four million dollars. In the tape, the pirates have warned that they have a machine that can detect false banknotes, said Bili Mahmoud Qabusad, spokesman for the Somali region of Puntland's president. According to Qabusad, the pirates probably come from the Somali capital, Mogadishu and set sail ten days ago on their mission to hijack the Sirius Star. Also on Wednesday, the Indian navy said one of its warships in the Gulf of Aden opened fire on a ship belonging to pirates operating off the coast of Somalia, sinking the vessel. The Indian navy said the pirates on board were armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers and threatened to blow up the warship and then opened fire on it. More than 92 ships have been attacked his year, more than three times the number in 2007, according to the International Maritime Bureau. At least 14 of these vessels, carrying over 250 crew members, are still in the control of hijackers. An estimated 25-30 million dollars has been paid in ransom to Somali pirates this year, according to a UN report released on Tuesday. Multinational naval vessels began patrolling the Gulf of Aden in August and have reportedly thwarted two dozen attacks. Private US security firm Blackwater has announced it is launching a flotilla of gunboats for hire by the shipping companies crossing the Gulf of Aden's 2.5 million square miles of sea. Posted by: Fred 2008-11-21 |
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