Imagery Image Reveals Initial Venezuela-Linked Oil Ship Confiscated by American Authorities is Now Near Texas.
US agents roped onto the deck of the tanker Skipper on December 10th.
Orbital data and ship tracking information has verified that the oil tanker Skipper – the first vessel apprehended by the United States for allegedly transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela – is now off the coast of Texas.
Vantor orbital photographs from 21 December shows the ship is in the vicinity of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System ship-tracking feeds from MarineTraffic currently places the Skipper about 80km offshore.
The Skipper was seized by US authorities on 10 December and has been sanctioned by multiple nations. When it was seized, it was incorrectly flying the flag of the nation of Guyana.
This interception was succeeded by the capture of a another tanker, the Centuries. It – in contrast to the Skipper – was not yet under official restrictions when it was taken into US custody.
American agencies are currently targeting a third vessel, which has been named by the risk management group Vanguard as the Bella 1. President Donald Trump stated yesterday that “we’ll end up getting it”.
Writing on the social media platform X, the maritime monitoring group noted the vessel Bella 1 has been “in transit for over a month” and, at an typical pace of 11 nautical miles per hour, may have “approximately a month of diesel remaining unless her speed drops”.
The group added the tanker is “probably heading in a southeasterly direction towards South Africa”.
