MOGADISHU, Somalia, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Somali pirates' capture of a 300,000-ton tanker carrying Saudi Arabian crude to the United States raised the stakes once again in the cat-and-mouse war being fought in the Indian Ocean between the maritime predators and an international naval fleet.
The Greek-owned Maran Centaurus, with a crew of 28, was seized Sunday by nine armed pirates 700 miles east of the African coast off the Seychelles islands.
That's believed to be the deepest into the Indian Ocean that the pirates have ever struck.
They have been thrusting eastward in recent months, largely to evade the warships patrolling the shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden, their original hunting ground where 20,000 vessels pass through every year.
The international fleet of 25 warships combating the pirates operates in three separate deployments, each with its own mission regulations -- a NATO force, an EU detachment and a combined task force led by the United States.
The Maran Centaurus, bound for New Orleans, was the second tanker the pirates have hijacked since they began preying on shipping three years ago.
It is not clear whether these behemoths of the seas that play a critical role in the global supply of energy have become particular targets.
But they command large ransoms, and security officials worry that such attacks could open the way for maritime terrorist attacks to disrupt global oil supplies.
On Nov. 15, 2008, pirates captured the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star and its cargo of 2 million barrels of oil worth $100 million 450 nautical miles east of Kenya as it sailed for the United States via the Cape of Good Hope.
The Maran Centaurus can carry the same volume, although details of its cargo have not been disclosed.
The 300,000-ton Sirius Star was released Jan. 9, 2009, after a ransom estimated at $3 million was paid, at that time believed to be the largest payment made to the pirates.
A month later, on Feb. 6, a ransom reportedly amounting to $3.5 million was paid for the release of the MV Faina, a Ukrainian vessel carrying 33 Russian T-72 main battle tanks and other weapons for an unidentified African state, reportedly Sudan. It had been seized on Sept. 25, 2008.
The suspicions voiced by some Western observers of links between the Somali pirates and Islamist terrorists are tenuous at best.
Islamic militants fighting the Western-backed transitional government in Somalia are alleged to have strong connections to al-Qaida.
U.S. forces have assassinated or captured several known al-Qaida operatives in Somalia in the last couple of years.
But none of these seem to be directly involved in the pirates' depredations. However, Western intelligence sources maintain that piracy may be helping to fund terrorism.
They further argue that most businesses concerned with the shipping industry are indirectly aiding the pirates because the cost of improving security is too prohibitive.
According to one report by Asia Times Online, an executive of a major Western shipping firm explained that security for one of his company's container ships involved a four-man team that costs $1 million a year per ship.
"With 1,000 ships afloat, his firm would pay $1 billion a year to protect them," the report said. "It doesn't help that it is already losing $1 billion a year due to the global contraction of world trade, which shows no signs of recovery.
"Ransom costs around $2 million per hijacking, a tiny fraction of the cost of protection. Were the military to provide guards, it would need to deploy 40,000 soldiers for his company alone, at a time when personnel resources are already overstretched."
Under those circumstances, the pirates, who have now learned how to operate far out to sea using mother ships such as seagoing trawlers carrying speedboats for attacks, look set for a lot more plunder.
