Imagery Image Shows First Venezuelan Oil Ship Confiscated by US is Currently Off the Texas Coast.
US agents boarding the deck of the Skipper on 10 December.
Satellite imagery and vessel monitoring information has verified that the oil tanker named Skipper – the initial vessel apprehended by the United States for allegedly transporting embargoed oil from Venezuela – is currently positioned near of the state of Texas.
Vantor orbital photographs from 21 December shows the ship is near Galveston, while AIS vessel-tracking data from a maritime data service presently places the Skipper about 80km from the coast.
The tanker Skipper was seized by American officials on 10 December and has been blacklisted by multiple governments. When it was seized, it was incorrectly sailing under the flag of the nation of Guyana.
This interception was succeeded by the capture of a second tanker, the Centuries. This ship – unlike the first vessel – was not yet under official restrictions when it was brought under US custody.
US authorities are currently targeting a third such vessel, which has been identified by the risk management group Vanguard as the Bella 1. The US President said recently that “we’ll end up getting it”.
Writing on X, the TankerTrackers group said the Bella 1 has been “underway for 39 days” and, at an typical pace of 11 nautical miles per hour, may have “another 28 to 35 days of diesel remaining unless her speed drops”.
The monitoring service added the tanker is “probably heading in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.
