Satellite Image Shows Initial Venezuelan Tanker Confiscated by US is Currently Near the Texas Coast.
US personnel roped onto the deck of the tanker Skipper on 10 December.
Satellite imagery and ship tracking data has verified that the oil tanker named Skipper – the first vessel seized by the United States for allegedly carrying embargoed crude from Venezuela – is currently positioned near of Texas.
Vantor orbital photographs dated 21 December shows the tanker is in the vicinity of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System vessel-tracking feeds from MarineTraffic currently places the Skipper about 80km offshore.
The Skipper was taken into custody by US authorities on the tenth of December and has been sanctioned by several governments. At the time it was seized, it was falsely sailing under the flag of Guyana.
This seizure was succeeded by the capture of a another tanker, the Centuries tanker. This ship – unlike the Skipper – was not under sanctions when it was taken into American control.
US authorities are now pursuing a third vessel, which has been identified by the risk management group Vanguard as the Bella 1 tanker. President Donald Trump stated recently that “it will ultimately be secured”.
Writing on the social media platform X, the maritime monitoring group noted the vessel Bella 1 has been “in transit for 39 days” and, at an average speed of 11 knots, may have “approximately a month of diesel remaining unless her velocity decreases”.
The monitoring service added the vessel is “likely heading in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.
