An oil tanker, which was earlier reported to have been hijacked and sailed into Indonesian waters, was believed to have been taken due to a commercial dispute, Malaysian authorities said.
The Vier Harmoni, carrying 900,000 litres of diesel, went missing after leaving the Tanjung Pelepas port on the eastern coast of Peninsular Malaysia yesterday before it was relocated in the waters off Batam, Indonesia.
A Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) spokesman said there was no element of terrorism involved in the tanker's disappearance.
The spokesman said early investigations showed the tanker had been taken due to a disagreement between the ship's management and the crew.
The ship was registered in Batam but was being leased by a Malaysian company, the spokesman said.
The MMEA's southern regional chief told The Star newspaper there could have been a financial dispute within the company.
"We tried to contact the ship but it went unanswered," he was quoted as saying on the newspaper’s website.
"We believe the ship's captain might have turned off its tracking system as we could not trace it on our radar."
Shipping data in Thomson Reuters Eikon suggests the ship'st ransponder has been turned off since 20 June.
The ship was carrying diesel with an estimated value of 1.6 million ringgit (€348,500).
