🔗 Share this article

Satellite imagery and ship tracking information has verified that the oil tanker named Skipper – the initial vessel seized by the US for reportedly transporting embargoed crude from Venezuela – is now off the coast of the state of Texas.

Vantor orbital photographs dated 21 December indicates the tanker is near the port of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System vessel-tracking data from MarineTraffic presently positions the Skipper about 50 miles offshore.

The Skipper was seized by US authorities on the tenth of December and has been blacklisted by several governments. When it was intercepted, it was falsely sailing under the flag of the nation of Guyana.

This interception was succeeded by the interception of a second tanker, the Centuries tanker. This ship – in contrast to the first vessel – was not yet under sanctions when it was brought under 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 said yesterday 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 39 days” and, at an typical pace of 11 knots, may have “approximately a month of fuel remaining unless her speed decreases”.

The monitoring service further stated the vessel is “probably heading south-east towards South Africa”.