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Pirates Boarded Sakhalin Ice Tugboat
Envoys of Sakhalin Energy Co. that is the operator at Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project and pirates that captured the company’s Svitzer Korsakov tugboat were negotiating yesterday. Of six-member crew of the tugboat, four are the Russians and two are the Britain’s nationals.
The pirates captured Svitzer Korsakov close to Somali coast February 1, when it was leaving the Gulf of Aden. The tugboat sailed from St. Petersburg to Russia’s Sakhalin Island but the plans were that it would stop in Singapore en route. Neither the number of pirates nor their demands have been reported so far. The captain of Svitzer Korsakov is a British citizen, but four sailors are the Russians – Nikolay Berezovsky, Alexei Lichkunov, Pyotr Simochkin and Evgeny Komkov.
According to satellite navigation, the tugboat is cruising in the Gulf of Aden, as the pirates are probably running it to Mogadishu port of Somali. It emerged by past night that Sakhalin Energy set to negotiations with the pirates via an intermediary in an effort to clarify destiny of the crew and the ship.
Sakhalin Energy got two similar tugboats, Svitzer Korsakov and Svitzer Sakhalin past April, having charted them for 17 years. The vessels are to service the LNG/oil terminal located close to Prigorodnoe village, the Aniva Bay. Despite the moderate size (34.5m x 13m), the tugboats are capable of breaking 85-cm ice and high-priced computer devices are their second benefit.
Sakhalin Energy couldn’t be reached for comment yesterday. The rescuers say a NATO ship that is currently in the Gulf of Aden has been informed about Russian vessel’s capture.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 04, 2008
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