The owner of the hijacked Saudi ship for which Somali pirates are demanding a ransom of $20 million has said that it was the vessel's insurance company that received the ransom demand and that he himself had engaged in no direct contact with the pirates. “All contact has gone through the Saudi insurance company via its head office in Jeddah, and the negotiation process is continuing for want of any other solution,” said Kamal Muhammed Al-Urri, owner of the Al-Nisr Al-Saudi vessel. “The priority at the moment is the safety of the crew of 13 Sri Lankans and their Greek captain. The hijackers have allowed them to speak to their families by satellite phone, and they assured them that they were in good health despite the distressing situation,” Al-Urri said. Al-Urri said he hoped to see international action to confront piracy on the high seas which, he said, was raising insurance premiums. Al-Nisr Al-Saudi is a relatively small fuel oil carrier and was empty of cargo when it was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden in the first days of March. Officials said it was not registered with maritime authorities and was outside the designated route patrolled by naval warships at the time. In 2008, Somali pirates had hijacked the Saudi-owned Sirius Star supertanker, the largest ship known to have been seized by pirates, with a full two million barrels of oil. The pirates held the tanker off the coast of Somalia for two months and released it in January 2009 for a ransom of $3million. Somali pirates are currently holding six hijacked ships and 132 sailors, including the crew of the Al-Nisr Al
