Photo: Cornelis Kloppenburg

Owners of a Greek-flagged oil tanker dropped a record ransom payment of $5.5 million to $7 million on the deck of the ship today, prompting Somali pirates to release the Maran Centaurus.

Ransoms to Somali pirates have reached a historic high, as owners of the Maran Centaurus – a Greek-flagged oil tanker – dropped a ransom payment of $5.5 million to $7 million on the deck of the ship today.

The payment, which prompted Somali pirates in the port of Haradheere to release the ship, marks a dramatic escalation in ransom payments since the $3 million payment for the Saudi owned oil tanker Sirius Star last year. While US and European navies continue to patrol shipping lanes off the Somali coast, there has been no letup in pirate attacks, and pirates, if anything, appear to be becoming even more effective at capturing ships.