German / US-Tanker to be Released by Somali Pirates

The fate of the crew of MT Marida Margeuerite still hangs in the balance.

MT "MARIDA MARGUERITE" / Kiel-Canal transit from Heraklion to Fredericia on the 23.10.08. Photo: Malte Wulf

(NAIROBI, Kenya ECOTERRA) - MT Marida Margeuerite ITE *was seized on the 8th day of this year. The vessel and crew were captured around 120 nm south of the Omani port of Salalah in the protected shipping corridor.

The German owner-managed, US-owner-registered chemical tanker of 13.273 dwt Marida Margeuerite (IMO 9445655) has a crew of 22 seamen, including 19 Indians, two Bangladeshi and one Ukrainian.

The vessel is flying a flag of convenience (FOC) from the Marshall Islands and is owned by W-O Shipping Group B.V. The tanker was held at the north-eastern Somali Indian Ocean coast near Garacad but then changed position to a location off the Gulf of Aden Coast near Habo.

The vessel was commandeered southwards to Hobyo during mid August in a possible move to provide cover for the release of the Korean supertanker held there, but has been commandeered back northwards too, when the oil-tanker left from Hobyo.

The vessel and crew are said to be held now near Dinowda Quorioweyn close to the MV Suez. Negotiations were said to have come to a conclusion already some time ago and a near release seemed possible, but a conflict among the pirates delayed the conclusion.

Now the Somali pirates are ready to release the German-operated tanker, which they have held for eight months, after they were paid $5.5 million yesterday (Sunday), a pirate leader told a Bloomberg stringer.

“We have just received $5,500,000 dollars this morning,” Khlaiif Dahir, a leader of the pirates in Gara’ad, a village in Somalia’s central Mudug region, said today in the telephone interview.