Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Somali pirates demanded $25 million in ransom for an oil-laden Saudi supertanker seized off the East African coast, and called on its owners to pay up ``soon.''

``What we want for this ship is only $25 million because we always charge according to the quality of the ship and the value of the product,'' a man who identified himself as Abdi Salan, a member of the hijacking gang, said in a telephone interview yesterday from Harardhare. The town is in Somalia's semi- autonomous northern Puntland region close to where the ship is anchored. The man didn't give a deadline or say what would happen if the money isn't paid.

The Sirius Star, which belongs to Saudi Arabia's state-owned shipping line, Vela International Marine Ltd, was seized along with its crew of 25 on Nov. 15, about 420 nautical miles (833 kilometers) off Somalia. That sort of boat costs about $148 million new, and the Sirius Star was carrying more than 2 million barrels of crude valued at about $110 million.

The hijacking, from boarding to the pirates' taking control, took just 16 minutes, Agence France-Presse said yesterday, citing U.K. reports. The military reports said the tanker was too large and too laden to outmaneuver pirate speedboats, and was poorly defended, according to AFP.

The ransom may be the highest sum demanded by pirates from war-torn Somalia, which hasn't had an effective government since the 1991 fall of the Siad Barre regime. They have asked for an average of $1 million per ship this year, according to the London-based research organization Chatham House.

Empowering Pirates

It's difficult to predict the outcome of the talks between Vela and the gang holding the Sirius Star, or how much the pirates may receive in the end, Andreas Sohmen-Pao, chief executive officer of BW Shipping Managers Pte, one of the world's largest shipping operators, said.

``These negotiations tend to take place in private,'' he said today in an interview with Bloomberg Television. ``This is an opening negotiation and no one knows where it will end up.''

In any case, paying pirates ransom is empowering them, and the only long-term solution is for navies to step up their efforts to protect merchant ships, Sohmen-Pao said.

``Merchant ships are not designed or equipped to fend off pirates,'' he said. And the alternative of taking the longer route around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope ``is complicated.''

Largest Hijacking Yet

Since January, at least 91 vessels have been attacked in the Gulf of Aden, an area almost twice the size of Alaska flanked by Yemen and Somalia. The hijacking of the Saudi ship was the most brazen assault yet, as it was the largest seized and was the farthest from the coast when attacked.

Muse Gelle Yusuf, governor of Puntland's Bari region, said officials would stage a rescue attempt if the Saudi Arabian government agreed to a plan.

The Puntland administration has carried out at least two successful rescue attempts ``but in those instances there were links between the administration and the cargo on the ship so there was a financial incentive,'' said Roger Middleton, an analyst at Chatham House, who has researched Somalia for the past three years and piracy for nine months.

The seizure of the oil tanker may push Western navies to step up their actions against hijackers, who find potential targets with GPS navigational aids and satellite phones and use captured fishing trawlers to launch attacks out at sea, according to an October report by Chatham House.

NATO Considers Changes

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has a four- warship anti-piracy fleet off Somalia, is considering changes to its operations in the area, even if it isn't immediately planning to send more ships, Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, chairman of the alliance's military committee, said at a news conference in Brussels this week.

Germany's parliament will vote this month or next on whether to join a European Union fleet expected to reach the zone next month, and Russia is likely to add to its one ship in the area, the Neustrashimy, or Intrepid, a navy spokesman said.

India and Malaysia already have warships in the region and the U.S. coalition in Afghanistan has a task force in the area. The navies of India, Russia, France, Britain and Germany have all battled pirate vessels.

Military action is ``the only solution,'' Jens Martin Jensen, interim chief executive officer of Frontline Ltd.'s management unit, the world's biggest owner of supertankers, said in a telephone interview from Singapore. He called for navies to be given a clearer mandate ``of what they can do and what they can't.''

15 Warships

In total, there are about 15 warships off the Somali coast, French military spokesman Christophe Prazuck said. The Pentagon has urged shipping companies to step up their own security provisions.

Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission, said yesterday that piracy off the coast of Somalia indicated a further deterioration in the country's political situation.

He called in an e-mailed statement for ``more sustained and coordinated efforts by the international community to support the peace efforts in Somalia, including the early deployment of United Nations peacekeeping forces.''

Other pirates in Harardhare are prepared to help those who captured the Saudi ship should they require assistance, Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade, an adviser to Puntland President Adde Muse, told Bloomberg News in a telephone interview.

Andrew Mwangura, head of the Seafarers' Assistance Program in Mombasa, Kenya, confirmed in a telephone interview that the pirates were asking for $25 million, adding ``I don't think that the Somali pirates can do anything if the ransom is not paid within 10 days.''

The Sirius Star's crew includes citizens of Croatia, the U.K., the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia.

To contact the reporters on this story: Caroline Alexander in London at calexander1@bloomberg.net; Hamsa Omar in Mogadishu via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 21, 2008 04:40 EST