Satellite Image Shows First Venezuela-Linked Oil Ship Confiscated by American Authorities is Now Near the Texas Coast.
American personnel boarding the deck of the tanker Skipper on December 10th.
Orbital data and ship tracking information has verified that the oil tanker named Skipper – the initial vessel apprehended by the US for allegedly transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela – is now positioned near of Texas.
Vantor satellite imagery dated 21 December shows the ship is in the vicinity of the port of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System ship-tracking feeds from a maritime data service currently positions the Skipper about 50 miles from the coast.
The tanker Skipper was seized by US authorities on 10 December and has been blacklisted by multiple nations. When it was seized, it was incorrectly sailing under the flag of Guyana.
This interception was succeeded by the capture of a another tanker, the Centuries. It – unlike the first vessel – was not yet under sanctions when it was brought under American control.
American agencies are currently targeting a third such ship, which has been named by the risk management group a risk firm as the Bella 1 tanker. President Donald Trump said recently that “it will ultimately be secured”.
Writing on the social media platform X, the TankerTrackers group said the vessel Bella 1 has been “underway for over a month” and, at an average speed of 11 nautical miles per hour, may have “approximately a month of diesel remaining unless her speed drops”.
The monitoring service further stated the tanker is “probably heading in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.
