Satellite Data Reveals First Venezuelan Oil Ship Seized by American Authorities is Now Near the Texas Coast.
American personnel boarding the deck of the Skipper on 10 December.
Orbital data and vessel monitoring information has confirmed that the oil tanker named Skipper – the first vessel seized by the United States for allegedly carrying sanctioned oil from the Venezuelan regime – is now positioned near of Texas.
Vantor orbital photographs dated 21 December shows the ship is in the vicinity of the port of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System ship-tracking data from a maritime data service currently places the Skipper about 50 miles offshore.
The Skipper was taken into custody by US authorities on the tenth of December and has been blacklisted by multiple governments. When it was seized, it was falsely sailing under the ensign of Guyana.
This interception was followed by the interception of a second tanker, the Centuries tanker. It – in contrast to the first vessel – was not yet under official restrictions when it was taken into American control.
American agencies are now targeting a third ship, which has been named by the risk management group Vanguard as the Bella 1. President Donald Trump said yesterday that “it will ultimately be secured”.
Writing on the social media platform X, the TankerTrackers group noted the vessel Bella 1 has been “underway for over a month” and, at an typical pace of 11 nautical miles per hour, may have “another 28 to 35 days of diesel left unless her velocity drops”.
The monitoring service further stated the tanker is “likely heading in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.
