Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- MISC Bhd., the world's biggest owner of liquefied natural gas tankers, said one of its ships loaded with palm oil was hijacked off Somalia, in the second attack in a fortnight in the planet's most dangerous shipping lane.

The Bunga Melati Dua, with a crew of 39, was headed toward Rotterdam in the Netherlands from Indonesia when it was seized in the Gulf of Aden yesterday, MISC said in a statement. The ship's crew included 29 Malaysians and 10 Filipinos and it was hijacked at 10:09 p.m. Kuala Lumpur time, the statement said.

The hijacking follows the seizure of a Thoresen Thai Agencies Pcl vessel carrying plywood last week. More than a third of global piracy attacks in the second quarter took place off Somalia's 3,300-kilometer (2,060-mile) coastline, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

MISC's Bunga Melati Dua, a 177-meter chemical tanker built in 1997, has a liquid capacity of 34,036 tons, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Somalia, which hasn't had a functioning central administration since the 1991 removal of former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre, is at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden. The Gulf leads to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, one of the world's most important shipping lanes.

The total number of piracy attacks worldwide fell 9.5 percent in the first half to 114, the maritime bureau said.

Palm oil, mostly produced in Malaysia and Indonesia, is exported to Europe for refining. The price of the edible oil reached a record 4,486 ringgit a ton ($1,345) in March. The commodity fetched 2,520 ringgit today in Malaysia.

To contact the reporter on this story: Angus Whitley in Kuala Lumpur at awhitley1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 20, 2008 03:40 EDT