"Our first and foremost priority is ensuring the safety of the crew," Salah B. Ka'aki said.

Opec members have lost about $700bn due to falling crude prices

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that Somali pirates have received 30 million dollars in ransom this year

Binali Yıldırım, The Minister of Transport made a statement about the crew’s last status of health

Speaking from the tanker, which is moored off the Somali coast, Mohamed Said said: "We are demanding $25m from the Saudi owners of the tanker."

Businessmen's fear of attacks by pirates had increased after the hijacking of the Saudi Arabian tanker Sirius Star

ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Turkey has signed an agreement with Turkish national oil company

Turkish Maritime Magazine Executive Editor Recep Canpolat had an interview with captain Temeltaş by satellite phone.

The United States, which also has warships patrolling off Somalia to protect commercial ship, said a military approach was not the answer to a surge of piracy off the Horn of Africa.

The Saudi owners of the Sirius Star are in negotiations with Somali pirates who have demanded a ransom for the super-tanker laden with 100 million dollars of oil they hijacked at the weekend.

The buccaneers have taken a Thai fishing boat, a Greek bulk carrier and a Hong Kong-flagged ship heading to Iran since Saturday's spectacular capture of a Saudi supertanker carrying $100 million of oil, the biggest ship hijacked in history.

The Somalia pirates demand for 3 million dollars ransom for the hijacked fishing ship Tian Yu 8 through Turkish Maritime Magazine.

Iran is ready to set up a joint firm with Russia and Qatar but has no plans to export Iranian gas to Qatari plants so that it could be turned into liquefied natural gas (LNG), was reported on Tuesday.

Ankara is trying to set a precedent for Turkish jurisdiction in the eastern Mediterranean through state practice, prospecting for oil 80 miles south of Meis Island.

Pirates have seized a giant Saudi-owned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean off the Kenyan coast and are steering it towards Somalia, the US Navy reports.

OPEC, supplier of more than 40 percent of the world's oil, is likely to cut production at its summit in Oran, Algeria, next month and may not lower output at its meeting in Cairo on Nov. 29, the group's president said.

The hijackers intercepted the MV Thou Galaxy as it sailed for Warri in Delta state, seizing the captain and others.

Turkish maritime officials say pirates have commandeered a Turkish chemical tanker off the coast of Yemen.

Many food traders in Dubai are now threatening to shut their businesses after DP World tightened container storage rules at Jebel Ali Port and increased the demurrage rates by as much as 166 per cent, Gulf News has learned.

Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) of Hong Kong, which plys regularly to Port Klang, says its Malaysian operations will see continued growth for 2008 while anticipating a difficult period next year.

At the October 7 Board of Directors’ meeting, the premium requirements for renewal of the club membership were deliberated in light of the current claims and freight market, as well as the development in the financial markets.

The Baltic Dry Index has halted its tremendous fall as of last week, which ended with a mild 10% drop, which also saw a couple of upward sessions.

It is reported that Saudi Arabia petroleum export volumes fell almost 10% in the first nine months due to outgoing repairs of its oil facilities.

THE crew of the 82,849 dwt kamsarmax bulk carrier Yasa Neslihan, which was hijacked on 29 October by armed pirates operating in the waters off Somalia, are all alive.

TAIWAN’s Yang Ming Marine Transport said it will lay up container vessels of up to 20,000 teu by the first half of next year.

BRUSSELS energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs heads for Turkey and Azerbaijan today in search of gas for European Union.

FIFTEEN employees of Cosco Shipyard returned home on Sunday after being abducted for 12 days by three Russian-owned fishing processing vessels.

Nigeria will reduce crude oil export volumes by 5 percent in November and December due to OPEC's production cut, its state oil firm said on Thursday.

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. (KSE:009540), the world's largest shipbuilder, said Thursday that its third-quarter net profit fell 33 per cent on-year due to increased steel costs.

Oil prices continued to fell further in Asian trade Friday as worries over a slump in energy demand continues after reports of decline in US economy.

French liner giant CMA CGM has had to put its impending services for the Bangladesh market on hold following a decision by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to revoke its two year licence to operate in the country.

A Russian oil billionaire urged Moscow to join OPEC's output cuts just as the country's big oil companies reduced their November export plan by 10 percent, blaming the government for keeping export duty extra high.

Iran's main shipping firm has told its vessels to install barbed wire on their decks and put crew on watch against pirates in the Gulf of Aden, it said on Wednesday.

BRITISH shipping employers and unions have agreed to declare the Gulf of Aden a warlike operations area, in a deal that will double the pay of seafarers on many ships operated from the UK while serving close to piracy prone Somalia.

THE 82,849 dwt kamsarmax bulk carrier Yasa Neslihan is the latest ship to be hijacked by armed pirates operating in the waters off Somalia.

Gulf Navigation Holding PJSC, a leading shipping and marine services company in the region, has posted a Dh136.9 million profit for the first nine months of 2008.

World oil prices extended gains on Thursday after an overnight cut in US interest rates lifted expectations of higher energy demand, traders said.

Baltic Dry Index, the global benchmark for freight rates of dry bulk carriers, dropped to more than a six-year low that may force ship owners to keep a fifth of their global fleet idle.

Gazprom expects its revenue from the sale of natural gas to Europe to decline in 2009 due to a fall in global hydrocarbon prices, Andrei Kruglov, deputy chairman of the Russian gas monopoly's executive board said.

Output from the world’s oilfields is declining faster than previously thought, the first authoritative public study of the biggest fields shows.