EU: Hijacked oil tanker was outside corridor

[December 01, 2009]  NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- The commander of the EU Naval Force tells The Associated Press that an oil tanker hijacked by Somali pirates was traveling outside a recommended maritime corridor.

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 says that 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.

Pirates are believed to be taking the tanker to the coast of lawless Somalia.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Using flares and hoses, the crew of a Greek oil tanker fought off a pirate attack Tuesday in the Arabian Sea two days after brigands seized a tanker bound for the United States with $20 million of crude oil.

Pirates fired automatic weapons at the Sikinos and its crew of 24 some 500 miles (800 kilometers) southeast of Oman, according to a Greek coast guard statement. The crew fired flares and used high-pressure hoses to repel the attack and the vessel was continuing toward China.

The coast guard said the 16 Filipino and eight Greek seamen on board were unhurt. The Sikinos had set off from Sudan with a shipment of oil.

The Maran Centaurus, which pirates boarded on Sunday, is headed toward Somalia's coast. The attacks highlight the difficulty of keeping ships safe in the region -- particularly oil tankers.

Crews on oil tankers aren't allowed to smoke above deck, much less carry guns, for fear of igniting the ship's payload.

And the Maran Centaurus -- traveling from Saudi Arabia to New Orleans -- had no escort because naval warships patrolling off the Horn of Africa are stretched too thin. The problem has been further exacerbated because pirates are now operating hundreds of miles out at sea, using mother ships for their skiffs.

Some ships, like the one that fought off the attack Tuesday, have been outfitted with high pressure water guns and piercing noisemakers to repel pirates. But even this is shunned on many oil tankers for fear of triggering a response from pirates armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

"If you're not allowed to smoke a cigarette on the upper deck of an oil tanker, why would you want someone with a weapon up there?" said Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, who heads the private security company Dryad Maritime Intelligence.

There is also the fear that a gunfight could cause a leak that would devastate the environment.

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.

The seizure of the Maran Centaurus will have a minimal effect on global oil markets, said Ben Cahill, the petroleum risk manager at global oil consultancy PFC energy, although American refineries in the Gulf of Mexico waiting for the ship's crude might experience some disruption.

[Associated Press; By JASON STRAZIUSO]

Associated Press writers Katharine Houreld and Malkhadir M. Muhumed in Nairobi, Kenya, and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece contributed to this report.

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