Imagery Data Reveals First Venezuela-Linked Oil Ship Seized by US is Now Near Texas.
US personnel boarding the deck of the tanker Skipper on 10 December.
Orbital data and ship tracking information has confirmed that the oil tanker named Skipper – the initial vessel apprehended by the US for allegedly transporting embargoed crude from Venezuela – is currently positioned near of Texas.
Vantor satellite imagery from 21 December shows the ship is near Galveston, while AIS vessel-tracking data from a maritime data service presently places the vessel about 80km from the coast.
The tanker Skipper was taken into custody by US authorities on the tenth of December and has been blacklisted by several governments. At the time it was intercepted, it was incorrectly sailing under the flag of Guyana.
This seizure was succeeded by the capture of a second oil vessel, the Centuries tanker. It – unlike the Skipper – was not yet under sanctions when it was brought under US custody.
US authorities are now targeting a third such vessel, which has been named by the risk management group Vanguard as the Bella 1. The US President said recently 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 “approximately a month of fuel remaining unless her velocity decreases”.
The monitoring service further stated the vessel is “likely traveling south-east towards the South African coast”.
