Pirates seize oil tanker — largest payload ever

In a dramatic and unprecedented display of prowess, pirates operating deep in open waters have seized a Saudi oil tanker as long as three football fields, the U.S. military in the Middle East said Monday.

The Liberian-flagged Sirius Star, loaded with more than $100 million worth of crude oil, was hijacked and its multinational crew of 25 kidnapped by pirates in the Arabian Sea more than 450 nautical miles from the major port of Mombasa, Kenya.

The hijacking follows a string of increasingly brazen attacks by Somali pirates in recent months, but this appears to be the first time pirates have seized a full oil tanker, which typically cost $120 million.

"This is unprecedented," Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the Navy's 5th Fleet, told Reuters. "It's the largest ship that we've seen pirated. It's three times the size of an aircraft carrier."

The pirates were taking the captured tanker and crew to anchor off the Somali port of Eyl, Christensen said. The port on Somalia's northeastern coast has become a pirate haven, and several ships already are being held there as pirates negotiate ransoms.

The pirates issued no immediate demands, Christensen said. The ship's 25-member crew includes citizens of Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia, the Navy said.

The raid did little to roil the depressed world oil market but did raise security concerns.

About five years ago, pirates seized the Dewi Madrim, a chemical tanker passing through the Strait of Malacca between Indonesia and Malaysia, but stayed on board briefly after seizing technical manuals.

Security specialists are concerned pirates might seize a tanker carrying pressurized liquefied natural gas, or LNG, then blow it up near a civilian target or sell it to terrorists.

Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, the Joint Chiefs chairman, said he was not surprised pirates could capture such a massive vessel, because they often are lightly manned. But he expressed shock at the pirates' ability to operate so far from shore.

"I'm stunned by the range of it," Mullen said. The ship's distance from the coast was "the longest distance I've seen for any of these incidents."

The operation suggests the pirates may be expanding their range to avoid the multinational naval patrols plying the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea.

Piracy has increased sharply this year, with more than 80 ships attacked off the Somali coast, 36 of them successfully hijacked, according to the International Maritime Bureau, a piracy watchdog agency based in Kuala Lumpur. Among those hijacked, 14 ships with more than 200 crew members are still being held.

Ransom payments also have been rising. Only a few years ago, the average was in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. This year, they have mostly ranged from $500,000 to $2 million. The pirates' profits are set to reach a record $50 million this year, Somali officials say. Shipping firms usually are prepared to pay, because the sums are low compared with the value of the ships.

The pirates generally are heavily armed, and travel in speedboats equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment.

The 1,080-foot Sirius Star was carrying 2 million barrels of oil, according to its owner, Vela International, a subsidiary of the Saudi Arabia-based oil giant Saudi Aramco. The vessel apparently had been heading south toward the Cape of Good Hope, on Africa's southern tip, en route to North America.

Military officials did not disclose how they think the pirates managed to overwhelmed the crew.

Andrew Mwangura, head of the East African Seafarers Assistance Program in Nairobi, speculated the assailants must have been highly organized and used numerous vessels.

A mother ship probably would have launched two or more smaller craft, perhaps high-speed inflatable rafts with four to six gunmen in each, said Cyrus Mody, manager of the London-based International Maritime Bureau, which monitors piracy worldwide.

After the boats reach their prey, assault-rifle-toting pirates typically throw ladders with hooks onto the ship rails, making a beeline for the bridge to take control of the vessel's nerve center and the engine room.

"Once they have actually gained access, there's really very little that the crew could actually do to try to protect themselves," Mody said.

Piracy gained a new level of international attention in September, when a Ukrainian freighter packed with tanks, anti-aircraft guns and other heavy weapons was captured. That freighter is still under pirate control.

Warships from the United States, Russia, NATO, India and the European Union soon began steaming toward Somalia's waters. Aircraft now crisscross the skies on reconnaissance missions.

They appear to have had some success: The percentage of successful pirate attacks dropped to 31 percent in October from 53 percent in August, according to the Navy.

But the pirates have proved resilient. There have been several attacks in the past week alone. Several people were killed last week when British sailors battled pirates to thwart an attack on a Danish shipping vessel, U.S. Navy officials said.

The pirates have several advantages. Their hunting grounds, from the Gulf of Aden to the Kenyan coast, comprise more than 1 million square miles.

To be safe, merchant ships must stay in a narrow corridor identified by naval authorities. Of 15 recent pirate attacks, 10 were outside those corridors, naval officials said.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.