Imagery Image Shows First Venezuela-Linked Oil Ship Confiscated by American Authorities is Currently Off Texas.
American personnel boarding the vessel of the Skipper on December 10th.
Satellite imagery and ship tracking data has verified that the crude carrier Skipper – the first vessel apprehended by the United States for reportedly transporting sanctioned crude from Venezuela – is currently positioned near of the state of Texas.
Vantor orbital photographs dated 21 December indicates the tanker is near Galveston, while Automatic Identification System ship-tracking data from MarineTraffic currently positions the Skipper about 50 miles from the coast.
The Skipper was taken into custody by US authorities on 10 December and has been sanctioned by multiple nations. When it was seized, it was incorrectly flying the ensign of Guyana.
This seizure was succeeded by the capture of a second tanker, the Centuries tanker. This ship – in contrast to the first vessel – was not yet under official restrictions when it was taken into US custody.
American agencies are currently pursuing a third such ship, which has been named by the maritime risk group Vanguard as the Bella 1 tanker. President Donald Trump said recently that “we’ll end up getting it”.
Writing on the social media platform X, the maritime monitoring group noted the vessel Bella 1 has been “in transit for over a month” and, at an typical pace of 11 nautical miles per hour, may have “another 28 to 35 days of fuel left unless her velocity decreases”.
The monitoring service further stated the vessel is “probably heading south-east towards the South African coast”.
