Panamax Tanker Talara's Sudden Change of Course Spike Questions of "State Activity"

According to UKMTO, a tanker vessel was involved in suspicious activity, making sudden change of course into Iranian waters. The vessel in question is the 73 000DWT panamax tanker Talara.

AIS data from ShipAtlas showes that the ship went "dark" around 9AM (UTC) on November 14 after making it into Iranian waters (see screenshot below). The tanker came from the Al Hamriyah terminal where it had been loaded. It was on its way to Singapore when the unormal behaviour occurred.

According to several maritime security firms the vessel was intercepted by small vessels before the sudden change of course. Splash sources indicates that the small vessels was Iranian Military. UKMTO has therefore risen the question of possible "state activity". If this is the case, this would be Irans first hijacking of a commercial vessel this year. Iran has not acknowledged the incident yet. However Teheran has seized ships in the past following tensions with the West.

The 73,371 dwt Panamax tanker, built in 2010, is managed by Columbia and owned by Cyprus-based Pasha Finance.