A Greek-owned tanker captured by Somali pirates in May has been released and all crew members are safe, its operating company said on Tuesday.
"We are very pleased to report that the MT SMYRNI has been released after ten months in the captivity of Somali pirates," the Athens-based Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd said in a statement posted on its website.
"All of the crew are safe and well and the vessel is proceeding to a port of refuge," the company added, thanking all those involved for their support and stressing it would make no further statements.
Sailing under a Liberian flag, the tanker was captured by an unknown number of pirates some 300 nautical miles east of Oman, having departed from Turkey, according to the Greek news agency ANA.
It carried 135.000 metric tons of oil and had a crew consisting of two Greeks, 14 Filipinos, 11 Indians and one Romanian.
According to the state-run news agency, the company would not confirm reports of ransom paid to the pirates.
Somalia remains notorious for its piracy, despite a current three-year low in incidents thanks to increased naval patrols and the positioning of teams of armed security guards aboard ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
The International Maritime Bureau still warns that Somalia's waters remain extremely high-risk.
12 Mar, 2013
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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2013/03/12/Somali-pirates-release-Greek-owned-tanker-says-company-.html
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