Pirates seize Norwegian-owned tanker

tankerThe chemical tanker Pramoni, which was seized on 1st January by Somali pirates, has been revealed to be owned by a Norwegian shipping group.

The Pramoni is leased to an Indonesian company and was flying a Singaporean flag at the time of the hijacking, reports the Norway Post.

In the first Somali pirate attack of 2010 the Pramoni was captured while bound for India in the Gulf of Aden. The ship is owned by the Oslo-based Platou Finance group. On board the 20,000 tonne tanker at the time of the hijacking were a crew of 24, made up of mainly Indonesian nationals but also consisting of five Chinese, one Vietnamese and one Nigerian.

In Indonesia, the Jakarta Globe reported that talks are underway with overseas ministries in an effort to secure the release of the sailors.

“We have all the information from our embassy in Singapore and we have managed to track down the data of those who are on board,” said Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah. “We are establishing contacts with informal groups in Somalia and we have seen some indication that the ship’s owner is willing to negotiate, but this is very preliminary.”

Teuku confirmed that officials in Nairobi had been asked to gather all information possible on the Pramoni which was sailing from Africa at the time of the incident. Also on New Year’s Day was a separate hijacking of the British vessel Asian Glory in the Somali basin.