Satellite Image Reveals First Venezuelan Oil Ship Confiscated by US is Currently Off Texas.
US personnel boarding the deck of the tanker Skipper on December 10th.
Orbital data and ship tracking data has confirmed that the oil tanker named Skipper – the first vessel seized by the United States for allegedly transporting sanctioned crude from Venezuela – is now positioned near of Texas.
A satellite firm's orbital photographs dated 21 December indicates the tanker is in the vicinity of the port of Galveston, while AIS vessel-tracking feeds from a maritime data service currently positions the vessel about 80km from the coast.
The Skipper was taken into custody by US authorities on the tenth of December and has been blacklisted by several governments. 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 oil vessel, the Centuries. It – in contrast to the Skipper – was not under sanctions when it was brought under US custody.
American agencies are now pursuing a third such ship, which has been named by the maritime risk group Vanguard as the Bella 1. The US President said recently that “it will ultimately be secured”.
Writing on the social media platform X, the maritime monitoring group said the Bella 1 has been “in transit for over a month” and, at an average speed of 11 nautical miles per hour, may have “approximately a month of fuel remaining unless her speed decreases”.
The monitoring service added the vessel is “probably heading in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.
