Imagery Image Reveals First Venezuelan Oil Ship Seized by US is Now Off Texas.
American personnel boarding the deck of the tanker Skipper on December 10th.
Orbital data and vessel monitoring information has confirmed that the oil tanker Skipper – the first vessel seized by the United States for allegedly transporting embargoed oil from Venezuela – is now off the coast of Texas.
A satellite firm's orbital photographs from 21 December shows the tanker is near the port of Galveston, while AIS vessel-tracking data from a maritime data service presently places the Skipper about 50 miles from the coast.
The tanker Skipper was seized by American officials on 10 December and has been sanctioned by multiple nations. When it was intercepted, it was falsely sailing under the flag of the nation of Guyana.
This interception was succeeded by the capture of a second tanker, the Centuries. It – in contrast to the Skipper – was not under official restrictions when it was taken into American control.
US authorities are now targeting a third vessel, which has been named by the maritime risk group Vanguard as the Bella 1. The US President said yesterday 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 fuel left unless her velocity decreases”.
The monitoring service further stated the tanker is “probably traveling south-east towards the South African coast”.
