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uspected pirates have hijacked an oil-tanker carrying 945,000 barrels (135,000 metric tonnes) of crude oil destined for Indonesia in the Arabian Sea off Oman, news agencies and Indonesian officials said on Friday.

The vessel, M/T SMYRNI, a Liberian flagged tanker, is owned by a Greek company. It lost contact with Dynacom Tankers Management, which manages the vessel, on Thursday at 6:15 p.m. Jakarta time. There has so far been no demand for ransom issued.

“The Liberian-flagged Tanker, the M/T SMYRNI, is carrying a cargo of 135000 MT of crude oil,” Reuters reported from Nairobi, quoting the manager of Dynacom.

At the time of the attack, the tanker, which began its journey in Turkey, was heading toward Somali waters, a notoriously vulnerable area for pirate attacks. It was the first attack in more than a year in the Horn of Africa.

Meanwhile, Indonesian officials confirmed on Friday that the crude oil on the M/T SMYRNI oil tanker had been ordered by Indonesia from Azerbaijan, a major oil producer in the South Caucasus. The oil’s market price is more than US$130 million.

State-owned oil and gas company Pertamina said it had not suffered any financial loss from the attack on M/T SMYRNI, which was destined for its oil refinery in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.

Pertamina’s senior vice president (shipping) Suhartoko confirmed that the tanker did not belong to Pertamina.

“Pertamina didn’t suffer any losses but we will have to purchase the crude oil again,” Suhartoko told Antara news agency.

Based on the oil purchase contract, Suhartoko said Pertamina would only have paid after the delivery.

“The payment [for the oil] was due to be made only after the tanker reached Balikpapan. Therefore, we didn’t suffer any losses,” he said.

Azerbaijan has become a major crude supplier to Indonesia in recent years. Indonesia bought $1.76 billion of crude oil from Azerbaijan in 2011, a huge jump from $894.73 million in 2010. Oil imports from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, were just $98.47 million in 2007. Pertamina’s subsidiary Petral buys crude oil from Azerbaijan’s state oil and gas company Socar. Both Petral and Socar have offices in Singapore.

“Azerbaijan is one of the biggest suppliers of crude oil to Indonesia after Saudi Arabia,” Azerbaijan Ambassador to Indonesia Tamerlan Karayev told The Jakarta Post recently.

In 2011, according to the Central Statistics Agency, Azerbaijan ranked second-biggest crude oil supplier
to Indonesia after Saudi Arabia, which sold $4.47 billion worth of oil to Jakarta.

Meanwhile, State-owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan was surprised after hearing the news from reporters on Friday. “I will immediately study the situation. I would like to know what has happened,” Dahlan told detik.com.

The nationalities of the tanker’s crew as well as its assailants remain unclear. According to the International Maritime Organization, Somali pirates are currently holding 17 ships and close to 300 crew members.