Somali Pirates Free Greek Chemical Tanker After Ransom Paid, Bloomberg

I guess the Citigroup deal is a go!

Somali Pirates Free Greek Chemical Tanker After Ransom Paid

By Nasreen Seria and Maria Petrakis

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- A Greek chemical tanker seized by Somali pirates in September with 19 crew members on board was freed after the owners paid a ransom.

The MV Genius, which was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Sept. 26, is heading toward the United Arab Emirates after being freed on Nov. 20, Sophia Stavrakis, spokeswoman for Greece’s Merchant Marine Ministry, said by phone from Athens today. Mare Maritime Co. SA, the vessel’s owner, paid a ransom for its release, said Cteson Coucoulas, a spokesman for the company, declining to give further details.

Since January at least 91 vessels have been attacked in the Gulf of Aden, an area almost twice the size of Alaska, flanked by Yemen and Somalia. The Sirius Star, a Saudi supertanker laden with 2 million barrels of oil, is still being held by Somali pirates who are demanding $25 million for the release of the vessel hijacked on Nov. 15.

Negotiations on that ransom are “still ongoing,” Andrew Mwangura, head of the East Africa Seafarers Association, said by phone from Mombasa, Kenya today. He also confirmed the release of the MV Genius.

The Sirius Star belongs to Saudi Arabia’s state-owned shipping line Vela International Marine Ltd., and was hijacked with its 25-strong crew about 420 nautical miles (833 kilometers) off Somalia. The attack was the most brazen yet, as it was the largest vessel seized and was the farthest from the coast.

The ship is anchored near the town of Harardhere, in Somalia’s semi-autonomous northern Puntland region.

Somalia is in its 18th year of civil war and hasn’t had a functioning central administration since the ouster of former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in December 2006 to help the United Nations-backed government oust the Islamic Courts Union militia from southern and central parts of the country.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nasreen Seria in Johannesburg at nseria@bloomberg.net; Maria Petrakis in Athens at mpetrakis@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: November 22, 2008 09:23 EST

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=ab8HsHkyRTZg&refer=africa

 

They should be blown to Kingdom Come.

 

the $25m ransom is probably the tipping point.

up until now, it was generally more economical to pay the $1-2m ransoms than to arm every ship. but with the recent ransom inflation, that's changing. expect high-value ships to be armed or to take different routes hereafter.

the pirates are stupid, they should have kept the ransoms low enough to make it worthwhile for shipping companies to pay them.

 

With all the publicity this is getting, you can bet the pirates are themselves going to become targets of, shall we say, less sea-faring militias.

 

BTW, giving them some significant monies will aid in tracking the networking of these pirates and who is their masters. This will be the beginning to their ultimate end.....through precision "lead poisoning" events or C4 based micro fractional body dismemberment trauma. :eek: