Top oil exporters’ ship plans unchanged after hijack

DUBAI (Reuters) – Three of the Middle East’s top oil exporting nations, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait, have no immediate plans to alter their crude oil shipping operations despite an increased threat from pirates off East Africa.

Somali pirates over the weekend hijacked a Saudi supertanker with a cargo of two million barrels of oil and the U.S. navy said on Tuesday it was now anchored off Somalia.

The rest of top oil exporter Saudi Aramco’s export shipping operations were unchanged despite the seizure, a spokesman for the state owned company’s shipping arm, Dubai-based Vela International, said.

“There is no suspension of shipping operations,” the spokesman told Reuters. “Operations globally are continuing as per normal. This is an unfortunate incident, and this region is very sensitive.”

Reuters