Imagery Data Reveals First Venezuelan Oil Ship Confiscated by US is Now Off the Texas Coast.
American agents boarding the vessel of the Skipper on December 10th.
Satellite imagery and ship tracking information has verified that the crude carrier Skipper – the first vessel seized by the United States for reportedly carrying sanctioned oil from Venezuela – is currently positioned near of the state of Texas.
Vantor orbital photographs dated 21 December shows the ship is in the vicinity of Galveston, while AIS vessel-tracking data from a maritime data service currently positions the vessel about 50 miles offshore.
The Skipper was seized by US authorities on 10 December and has been blacklisted by multiple governments. At the time it was seized, it was incorrectly flying the flag of Guyana.
This seizure was succeeded by the interception of a second oil vessel, the Centuries tanker. It – unlike the first vessel – was not under official restrictions when it was taken into US custody.
US authorities are now pursuing a third such ship, which has been identified by the risk management group a risk firm as the Bella 1. President Donald Trump said yesterday that “we’ll end up getting it”.
Writing on X, the TankerTrackers group noted the vessel Bella 1 has been “in transit for 39 days” and, at an typical pace of 11 knots, may have “another 28 to 35 days of fuel left unless her velocity decreases”.
The monitoring service added the vessel is “likely traveling in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.
