Imagery Image Shows First Venezuelan Oil Ship Confiscated by American Authorities is Now Near Texas.
American personnel boarding the vessel of the Skipper on 10 December.
Orbital data and vessel monitoring data has verified that the oil tanker Skipper – the first vessel seized by the United States for allegedly transporting sanctioned oil from the Venezuelan regime – is currently off the coast of Texas.
Vantor satellite imagery from 21 December indicates the ship is in the vicinity of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System ship-tracking data from MarineTraffic currently positions the Skipper about 50 miles offshore.
The Skipper was seized by US authorities on the tenth of December and has been sanctioned by several governments. At the time it was seized, it was falsely flying the ensign of the nation of Guyana.
This seizure was succeeded by the capture of a another oil vessel, the Centuries tanker. This ship – unlike the Skipper – was not yet under sanctions when it was brought under US custody.
US authorities are now pursuing a third such vessel, which has been identified by the risk management group a risk firm as the Bella 1 tanker. President Donald Trump stated recently that “we’ll end up getting it”.
Writing on the social media platform X, the TankerTrackers group noted the vessel Bella 1 has been “underway for over a month” and, at an typical pace of 11 nautical miles per hour, may have “another 28 to 35 days of fuel left unless her velocity drops”.
The monitoring service added the vessel is “probably heading south-east towards South Africa”.
