NAIROBI (Reuters) – Somali pirates have hijacked a Yemeni ship loaded with steel, officials said on Tuesday, and one of Asia’s biggest shippers said it was diverting vulnerable vessels away from the dangerous Gulf of Aden.

Scores of attacks this year have brought the pirates millions of dollars in ransoms, hiked up shipping insurance costs, sent foreign navies rushing to the area, and left about a dozen boats with more than 200 hostages still in pirate hands.

Yemen’s official SABA news agency said the Yemeni ship MV Adina was travelling from Mukalla port to the southern island of Socotra and had been due to dock on November 20 with 507 tonnes of steel.

Yemeni security sources said the authorities were in touch with the pirates, who were demanding a $2 million ransom.

This is apparently the same group who hijacked the Saudi supertanker a couple of weeks ago:

Meanwhile, a spokesman for pirates holding a Saudi supertanker loaded with crude oil has told the BBC a ransom has not been determined. The spokesman said the pirates have spoken to company intermediaries, but found them to be untrustworthy.

Pirates seized the Sirius Star Nov. 15. The supertanker was carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil worth that has been estimated to be worth about $100 million.

Untrustworthy? I would think pirates are untrustworthy. The continued hijacking of ships is costing millions of dollars and has to be having an impact on the troubled world economy. What is being done to combat these pirates?

Peter Swift, head of the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (Intertanko) suggested that warships could begin monitoring vessels leaving Somali waters, rather than attempting to patrol the entire Gulf of Aden and a significant part of the Indian Ocean.

He said the other option was a blockade around Somalia.

However, Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Monday that the alliance was not considering any naval blockade.

He said that such action has not been endorsed by the UN Security Council. Nato has four warships on duty in the area.

Looks like politics is playing a key role in the success of the pirates. The companies are sending some of the most valuable cargo in the world across the a vast ocean and hoping they are not captured. Seems to me that it is high time for a serious display of naval power in the area; one displayed though a coordinated effort involving many countries would be best. A global effort of organized attacks on these pirates with conviction and dedication will make the shipping lanes safer. We should be past the age of piracy on the high seas by now. Our economy cannot afford to pay ransom for resources.

In a dramatic and unprecedented display of prowess, suspected Somalian pirates operating far out in open waters have seized an oil tanker as long as an aircraft carrier, the U.S. military said Monday.

The Sirius Star, flying the Liberian flag, was hijacked and its multinational crew of 25 were kidnapped by pirates off the coast of East Africa on Saturday more than 450 nautical miles from the port of Mombasa, Kenya.

The ship appeared headed toward Somalia, the East African country from where many of the region’s pirates set out on raids, according to the U.S. 5th Fleet.

The pirates made no immediate demands, said U.S. Navy Lt. Nathan Christensen. “It’s the largest ship we’ve seen attacked,” Christensen said from the fleet’s base in Manama, Bahrain.

Pirates!?!? Hijacking oil tankers? Those things are huge. How could something like that happen?

The burgeoning piracy crisis has flourished in lawless Somalia where almost two decades without a central government has left a country wracked by conflict, chaos and poverty.

“It was attacked more than 450 nautical offshore of Mombasa. This means that the pirates are now operating in an area of over 1.1 million square miles. This is a measure of the determination of the pirates and … a measure of how lucrative piracy could become,” Campbell said.

The pirates are holding the ship and crew and company officials are waiting for ransom demands. Just when we thought it was safe to go to the gas pump, now we get oil piracy. What did this act do to the markets in our fragile economy?

Oil futures spiked Monday morning just as news broke that Somali pirates had nabbed a Saudi Aramco-owned super tanker named Sirius Star off the coast of Kenya. The huge ship can carry up to 2 million barrels of oil.

Just before 9 a.m., oil futures stood at $56 a barrel. By 10 a.m., they rose $3 to nearly $59. But the price effect — if there was one — was short-lived. By noon, oil prices were back to their now-familiar downward slide and were trading in negative territory.

If my math is correct (2 million barrels at $59 per barrel), the ship’s cargo alone is worth $118 million. No wonder piracy is making a comeback. I’m glad to hear this act did not have a large impact on oil prices, but we still have a crew and ship in hostile hands. Hopefully, the crew will be released unharmed.