Imagery Data Reveals Initial Venezuelan Tanker Seized by American Authorities is Now Near the Texas Coast.
US personnel roped onto the vessel of the tanker Skipper on December 10th.
Satellite imagery and vessel monitoring information has verified that the oil tanker Skipper – the initial vessel apprehended by the United States for allegedly transporting sanctioned oil from the Venezuelan regime – is now positioned near of Texas.
Vantor orbital photographs dated 21 December shows the ship is near the port of Galveston, while AIS vessel-tracking data from a maritime data service presently places the vessel about 80km offshore.
The tanker Skipper was seized by US authorities on 10 December and has been sanctioned by multiple nations. When it was seized, it was falsely sailing under the ensign of the nation of Guyana.
This interception was succeeded by the capture of a another oil vessel, the Centuries. It – in contrast to the first vessel – was not yet under official restrictions when it was taken into American control.
American agencies are currently targeting a third such vessel, which has been named by the maritime risk group Vanguard as the Bella 1 tanker. 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 “another 28 to 35 days of fuel remaining unless her velocity decreases”.
The group added the vessel is “probably traveling in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.
