Satellite Data Shows First Venezuela-Linked Tanker Confiscated by US is Currently Off Texas.
American agents boarding the vessel of the tanker Skipper on 10 December.
Orbital data and vessel monitoring information has verified that the crude carrier named Skipper – the initial vessel seized by the United States for allegedly carrying embargoed oil from Venezuela – is currently positioned near of the state of Texas.
Vantor orbital photographs from 21 December shows the ship is near the port of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System vessel-tracking feeds from a maritime data service currently positions the vessel about 50 miles from the coast.
The Skipper was seized by US authorities on the tenth of December and has been blacklisted by multiple nations. When it was seized, it was falsely sailing under the flag of Guyana.
This seizure was succeeded by the capture of a another oil vessel, the Centuries tanker. It – in contrast to the Skipper – was not yet under sanctions when it was brought under US custody.
US authorities are currently pursuing a third such ship, which has been named by the risk management group Vanguard as the Bella 1. The US President stated yesterday that “we’ll end up getting it”.
Writing on X, the TankerTrackers group said the vessel Bella 1 has been “underway for 39 days” and, at an typical pace of 11 nautical miles per hour, may have “approximately a month of fuel left unless her velocity decreases”.
The monitoring service added the vessel is “probably heading in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.
