"The pirates are progressively becoming the masters of the Indian Ocean," Jack Lang, a former French Cabinet minister who advises the United Nations on legal issues concerning Somalia piracy, warned the U.S. Security Council in January.

The piracy problem "is spinning out of control into the entire Indian Ocean," Joe Angelo, managing director of the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners, declared Feb. 9.

"If piracy in the Indian Ocean is left unabated, it will strangle these crucial shipping lanes with the potential to severely disrupt oil flows to the United States and the rest of the world," he said.

Intertanko members own the majority of the world's tanker fleet.

Angelo's call for action came after the Greek-flagged supertanker Irene SL, was seized off the coast of Oman with 1.9 million barrels of Kuwaiti crude, worth $150 million, bound for the United States.

A day earlier, the 105,000-ton Italian tanker Savina Caylyn was seized 800 miles east of Somalia with a cargo of Sudanese oil worth $60 million destined for Malaysia.

These attacks took place near the southern end of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that is the only way in and out of the Persian Gulf. Some 40 percent of the world's oil supplies, transits the strait every day.

The concern is growing that if the Somali pirates join forces with al-Qaida, global energy supplies could be seriously disrupted.

For instance, a surge of tanker hijackings in the Arabian Sea or Indian Ocean, at the same time oil supplies are cut because of upheavals in the Middle East, such as the current turbulence that began in January, could have dire economic consequences.

The unprecedented Feb. 22 killing of four American hostages captured aboard a 60-foot yacht in the Arabian Sea four days earlier has increased the stakes and demands for tougher action.

The pirates were taking the yacht to Somalia when they were intercepted by U.S. Navy ships.

The combined naval forces of the United States, NATO, the European Union and others such as China and Iran have failed to crush the pirates operating out of war-torn Somalia over the last 2-3 years.

The flotillas of warships may have succeeded in make the maritime routes of the Gulf of Aden safer but they have simply driven the pirates eastward, deep into the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, some of the world's most crucial and strategic shipping lanes.

So far this year there have been at least 61 attacks on ships, 13 hijackings and at least six hostages killed. All took place in these waters, which were once considered to be safe because they were too far from Somalia to be at risk.

But the pirates have become much more organized, mobile and flexible, supported by an elaborate network of investors, accountants, strategists and recruiters, maritime and security industry analysts said.

Their ability to operate on the high seas, even during the monsoon seasons, at ever-increasing ranges is largely because they have amassed a fleet of ocean-going "mother ships."

These vessels, many of them captured cargo ships or deep-water fishing trawlers, carry the skiffs used by the pirates to board merchant vessels.

Over the last year, they've been moving progressively eastward and now operate more than 1,000 miles from their bases in Somalia.

Ransoms demanded by the pirates, mainly from shipping companies, have risen alarmingly. In 2010, the average rose to $5.4 million from $3.4 million in 2009. In 2005, the figure was $150,000.

On Nov. 6, a ransom record was set: $9.5 million for the release of the 300,000-ton South Korean supertanker Samho Dream and its 24 crewmen. It was hijacked in the Indian Ocean April 4, 2010, carrying 2 million barrels of Iraqi crude, worth $200 million, to the United States.

"As the problem escalates, so should the measures to address it," the Financial Times said in a recent editorial. "Ultimately, Somali piracy can only be solved on land."

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