Bloomberg confirmed that the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker "St Nikolas" is the vessel that was hijacked. A previous report says that St Nikolas was seized by the US last year, sailing under a different name, "Suez Rajan," for transporting unauthorized Iranian cargo.
Empire Navigation, the vessel's operator, said the tanker was loaded with 145,000 tons of crude from the Iraqi port of Basra and was en route to Aliaga in western Turkey through the Suez Canal. It noted all communication with the vessel had been lost.
St Nikolas' Automatic Identification System (AIS), a tracking system that uses transceivers on ships to identify and locate vessels, was switched off. The vessel's last known position was about 50 miles east of Sohar late Wednesday night.
@9J233ZK1yr1Y
Put them back in their d*!%n corner
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