Satellite Image Reveals First Venezuelan Oil Ship Confiscated by American Authorities is Now Off the Texas Coast.
American personnel boarding the vessel of the Skipper on 10 December.
Satellite imagery and ship tracking information has confirmed that the crude carrier named Skipper – the first vessel seized by the US for reportedly transporting sanctioned oil from the Venezuelan regime – is now positioned near of the state of Texas.
Vantor satellite imagery dated 21 December indicates the ship is in the vicinity of the port of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System vessel-tracking data from a maritime data service currently positions the Skipper about 80km from the coast.
The Skipper was seized by American officials on the tenth of December and has been sanctioned by multiple nations. At the time it was seized, it was falsely sailing under the flag of Guyana.
This interception was succeeded by the interception of a second tanker, the Centuries. It – unlike the Skipper – was not yet under sanctions when it was taken into American control.
US authorities are now targeting a third ship, which has been named by the risk management group Vanguard as the Bella 1. The US President said yesterday that “we’ll end up getting it”.
Writing on the social media platform X, the TankerTrackers group noted the vessel Bella 1 has been “in transit for over a month” and, at an average speed of 11 knots, may have “approximately a month of fuel remaining unless her velocity decreases”.
The monitoring service further stated the tanker is “likely heading in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.
