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The Sirius Star is the biggest ship ever to be hijacked, with a capacity of 2m barrels - more than one-quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily output.
"This is unprecedented," said Lt Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the US Fifth Fleet. "It's the largest ship that we've seen pirated.
It's three times the size of an aircraft carrier."
War-torn Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991.
News of the attack raised crude oil prices on global markets following an earlier slump, Reuters news agency reported.
"There will never be enough warships," said Graeme Gibbon Brooks, managing director of Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service Ltd.
"The whole area is 2.5 million square miles. The coalition have to act pre-emptively and be one step ahead of the pirates."
"They're very good at what they do," he told a Pentagon briefing in Washington.
"I'm stunned by the range of it," said Navy Adm Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. "The pirates, he added, "They're very well armed. Tactically, they are very good."
But it is not just the size of the vessel – 318,000 deadweight tons – which is astonishing, it is its type and its importance.
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