Pirates hijacked last Thursday a Greek oil tanker with at least eight Filipino crew members in the Arabian Sea, a UK-based news site reported.

UK’s The Guardian said the hijacking of the MT Smyrni was the first successful attack by pirates on an oil tanker off Horn of Africa in a year.

It quoted Kenya-based piracy expert Andrew Mwangura, maritime editor of Somalia Report, as saying the vessel’s crew included “nine Indians and about eight Filipinos.”

Mwangura also said the ship was headed to Somalia.

The tanker was carrying 135,000 tons of crude oil in the Arabian Sea when it was seized, the report added.

Dynacom Tankers Management, the vessel’s manager, said it had lost contact with the crew of the MT Smyrni, a Suezmax-class tanker, after the attack off Oman at 11.15 GMT Thursday (7:15 p.m. in Manila).

Suezmax tankers can transport a crude oil cargo of up to one million barrels, compared with two to three million barrels for larger oil tankers, The Guardian said.

It quoted OceanUSlive.Org, a social networking site for the maritime industry, as saying the attack was one of four to have taken place in the Arabian Sea in the past few days after a lull in pirate activity.

The report also said the tanker was attacked by 2 pirate skiffs approximately 285 nautical miles south-southeast of Masirah Island, Oman, reportedly on its second voyage since being built in 2011.

The Suezmax vessel is the largest to be hijacked since February 2011.

According to a report on OceanUSlive.Org, the tanker had enforced-anti piracy measures, increased speed, made evasive maneuvers and managed to evade the first boarding attempt, prompting the skiffs to regroup with the mother ship in the vicinity.

Later, the skiffs launched a second attack on the tanker, approached at a speed of 24-knots-per-hour and managed to successfully board and hijack the vessel and take the crew members hostage, the report added.

There was no confirmation yet whether a security team was on board the vessel, as recent changes in Greece navigation rules allow armed guards on Greek-flagged vessels, it said.

Diverted to Somalia

Meanwhile, a pirate who identified himself as Ahmed told Reuters the MT Smyrni had been diverted towards Somalia's "lawless coastline."

"It is now heading to one of our bases," Ahmed told Reuters by phone from a pirate lair in Hobyo.

Based on the course and speed of the vessel's advance, the tanker will reach Hurdiyo in Somalia around midday Saturday, an industry source said.

According to Reuters, hijack success rate for Somali pirates has dropped sharply in recent months, due in part to more merchant ships turning to armed security guards, razor wire and water cannons to protect themselves.

Seaborne gangs have raked in an estimated $150 million in ransoms in what has become a highly organized, international criminal enterprise, security analysts told Reuters.

Somali pirates in December released an Italian-owned Aframax oil tanker, smaller than the Suezmax, after receiving an $11.5 million payment. The Savina Caylyn was seized in February, 2011.

Last Wednesday, The Guardian quoted OceanUSlive.org as saying a gang of pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades at a crude tanker 565 km east of Socotra, an island between Yemen and Somalia. — with a report by Andrei Medina /LBG, GMA News