Satellite Data Reveals Initial Venezuela-Linked Oil Ship Confiscated by US is Currently Near Texas.
American personnel boarding the deck of the tanker Skipper on December 10th.
Satellite imagery and ship tracking information has confirmed that the crude carrier named Skipper – the first vessel apprehended by the US for reportedly transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela – is currently off the coast of Texas.
Vantor orbital photographs dated 21 December shows the ship is in the vicinity of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System vessel-tracking data from a maritime data service currently positions the Skipper about 80km from the coast.
The Skipper was seized by US authorities on the tenth of December and has been blacklisted by several governments. When it was intercepted, it was incorrectly flying the ensign of Guyana.
This seizure was succeeded by the capture of a another oil vessel, the Centuries tanker. This ship – unlike the Skipper – was not yet under official restrictions when it was taken into US custody.
American agencies are currently targeting a third such vessel, which has been identified by the risk management group a risk firm as the Bella 1. President Donald Trump stated recently that “we’ll end up getting it”.
Writing on X, the TankerTrackers group said the Bella 1 has been “underway for over a month” and, at an typical pace of 11 nautical miles per hour, may have “approximately a month of diesel left unless her speed decreases”.
The monitoring service further stated the tanker is “likely traveling in a southeasterly direction towards South Africa”.