Thread: Somali pirates seize supertanker loaded with crude

29 mins ago

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Somali pirates hijacked a supertanker off the Kenyan coast, seizing the Saudi-owned ship loaded with crude and its 25-member crew, the U.S. Navy said Monday.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, said the pirates hijacked the Sirius Star — a newly commissioned ship owned by Saudi oil company Aramco — more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya.

Somali pirates have seized several ships off the Horn of Africa coast in the past week, but the latest hijacking — of a tanker the size of an aircraft carrier — marked a dramatic escalation.

Somali pirates are trained fighters, often dressed in military fatigues, using speedboats equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment. They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rockets launchers and various types of grenades.

The tanker seized Saturday is 1,080 feet and can carry about 2 million barrels of oil.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, said the Sirius Star was carrying crude at the time of hijacking, but he did know how much. He also had no details about where the ship was sailing from and where it was headed.

The ship was sailing under a Liberian flag. The 25-member crew includes citizens of Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia.

Somali pirates seize supertanker loaded with crude - Yahoo! News



Maybe Bush will help out his Saudi family on this one.

They got some balls these Somalis, i'll give them that and it seems that most times they get paid their ransom demands, so quite a lucrative career.

Sirius Star Launching Ceremony
March 28, 2008

KOJE CITY, South Korea — The second of six Vela International Marine very large crude carriers, the Sirius Star, was named recently in a ceremony at Koje City, South Korea. The event marked the first time that a Saudi female had performed a Vela naming ceremony, which marks the birth of a new vessel.

The Sirius Star is given a name at Daewoo’s shipyard

Vela Board member Huda M. Ghoson, who is Saudi Aramco’s director of Human Resources Policy and Planning, was given the honor of naming the new ship. Also in attendance were Won-Kang Ki, senior executive vice president and Chief Productions Officer of Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. Ltd., and Saud A. Bukhari, manager of the Vela Tanker Construction Department, plus team members from Dubai and the Korea site office.

Vela Board member Huda M. Ghoson

The Sirius Star is built to the latest maritime regulations and to Vela’s safe, reliable, and environmentally friendly specifications to ensure the reliable transportation of Saudi Aramco’s crude oil to its customers.

The Sirius Star is expected to leave port in March to begin its maiden voyage.

vela.ae

Somalis lickin their lips. She's a beauty. Not the girl silly, the tanker.

Originally Posted by buriramboy

They got some balls these Somalis, i'll give them that and it seems that most times they get paid their ransom demands, so quite a lucrative career.

Is it illegal for a tanker to be armed.?
They only have to knock out a few speed boats
Three men and some Silkworm Missiles might do the trick

So where was Saudi Arabia's official protector and defacto world's policeman? Did notice that the official reports came by the US Navy.

wouldn't it be cool if they take it home so it is close to the beaches and someone pokes a hole in it and a million barrels of crude wash ashore on Somali beaches and foul their ocean and with a fucked ship, no one pays a satang.
Fuckin Saudis and Aramco can afford the loss very easily too.

Originally Posted by Thetyim

Is it illegal for a tanker to be armed.?
They only have to knock out a few speed boats
Three men and some Silkworm Missiles might do the trick

I think most terminals would be reluctant to accept cargo vessels with heavy weapons to dock. There are rather stringent procedures for approving vessels in the first place, and any forms of explosives would be a big no-no.

The report said speedboats were used by Capt Jack Sparrow et. al. Zodiac-types could be called speedboats. You could sink one of those with a BB rifle and a couple of well-places darts.

Originally Posted by Whiteshiva

I think most terminals would be reluctant to accept cargo vessels with heavy weapons to dock.

Sorry I got the missile name wrong.
I was thinking about shoulder launched missiles that would only come aboard, with trained personnel, after the tanker had left port.

Originally Posted by blackgang

wouldn't it be cool if they take it home so it is close to the beaches and someone pokes a hole in it and a million barrels of crude wash ashore on Somali beaches and foul their ocean and with a fucked ship, no one pays a satang.
Fuckin Saudis and Aramco can afford the loss very easily too.

Yeah!....that would be real neat.

No honour among thieves.

What can they do with this much crude? Any refinery over there? I don't think so. Seems a bit crazy, like bar fining the whole bar.

^ ^
Demand money.

When you take hostages, it isn't the people you want.

^^
I was thinking about a navy ship stationed at either end of the hot zone ready to airlift the defence teams onto passing ships.
After 3 months hopefully most of the pirates would have been blown out of the water

I don't like calling them pirates. That word has too much adventurous and positive Hollywood connotation. Like keda said, no honor among thieves.

IMO they're not really terrorists either. If they get their money, nobody dies and nothing is destroyed.

They're just bandits exploiting a weakness -- forcing the world's hand into yet another realm of security layers. It's the new entrepreneurial spirit of the Muzzie poor and disenfranchised. Everyone wants a Mercedes in their driveway.

We have our Wharton Schools and MBAs and startup capital and risk-assessment matrix. They have their weapons schools and boarding tactics, negotiating techniques and exit strategies.

To many people, even some on TD, the bandit's road to success is equally noble as ours. It's Robin Hood on a global scale.

It seems inevitable that something is going to be done about the Somali piracy situation. I would imagine they're living on borrowed time.

A few of the countries most affected by their activities should get together and start sending empty ships crewed by soldiers with heavy weaponry near Somali shores and wait for the pirates to come to them. That should wipe out most of them in a short space of time, and it wouldn't seem like such a good idea anymore.

Maybe the French could send one of their cruisers and surrender to the Somalis.
That should confuse them

Originally Posted by Fast Eddie

It seems inevitable that something is going to be done about the Somali piracy situation. I would imagine they're living on borrowed time.

A few of the countries most affected by their activities should get together and start sending empty ships crewed by soldiers with heavy weaponry near Somali shores and wait for the pirates to come to them. That should wipe out most of them in a short space of time, and it wouldn't seem like such a good idea anymore.

Agreed, but this could also escalate with the big guns getting the blame for bullying tactics, or even entrapment.

My satangs are also for easing the problem by removing it, read them, but what next? Once you've wiped them out which of the major players will compo their families and probably the Somali gov for uninvited invasion or some other convenient line from some rule book they care nothing of except when it suits them?

Then, try arguing with the terminally misguided squawkers, some of whom you may even find on forums just like this, if you search hard and long enough, that the boats loaded with armed people approaching your vessel were pirates. Explain also, how you know with absolute certainty they were not, for example, innocent fishermen that strayed too close, with weapons for protection, or even despatched as a generous gesture by the Somalis or the muslim brotherhood, to protect you against pirates.

No way, FE, pc nutterism is leading the world into intensive care.

Originally Posted by Thetyim

Maybe the French could send one of their cruisers and surrender to the Somalis. That should confuse them

but haven't the French already surrendered to them before in history??
They have surrendered to everyone they have ever had any dealings with.

much on this, here

Originally Posted by keda

Originally Posted by Fast Eddie

It seems inevitable that something is going to be done about the Somali piracy situation. I would imagine they're living on borrowed time.

A few of the countries most affected by their activities should get together and start sending empty ships crewed by soldiers with heavy weaponry near Somali shores and wait for the pirates to come to them. That should wipe out most of them in a short space of time, and it wouldn't seem like such a good idea anymore.

Agreed, but this could also escalate with the big guns getting the blame for bullying tactics, or even entrapment.

My satangs are also for easing the problem by removing it, read them, but what next? Once you've wiped them out which of the major players will compo their families and probably the Somali gov for uninvited invasion or some other convenient line from some rule book they care nothing of except when it suits them?

Then, try arguing with the terminally misguided squawkers, some of whom you may even find on forums just like this, if you search hard and long enough, that the boats loaded with armed people approaching your vessel were pirates. Explain also, how you know with absolute certainty they were not, for example, innocent fishermen that strayed too close, with weapons for protection, or even despatched as a generous gesture by the Somalis or the muslim brotherhood, to protect you against pirates.

No way, FE, pc nutterism is leading the world into intensive care.

Believe it or not, those big ships move pretty fast. You need a speed boat to catch up with them. And their sides are quite high, you need grappling hooks to get aboard. Its not like some old fisherman can accidentally bump into them and step aboard.

I think any navy personnel would know if they were under attack or not.
The guns are usually a dead giveaway too.

^
I think I read somewhere that it takes 30 miles to bring a tanker to a halt
Thems is big buggers