Satellite Image Shows First Venezuelan Tanker Confiscated by American Authorities is Currently Off the Texas Coast.
US personnel boarding the vessel of the tanker Skipper on 10 December.
Orbital data and vessel monitoring information has verified that the oil tanker Skipper – the initial vessel apprehended by the United States for reportedly carrying embargoed crude from Venezuela – is currently off the coast of Texas.
Vantor satellite imagery from 21 December shows the tanker is near Galveston, while Automatic Identification System vessel-tracking data from MarineTraffic presently places the Skipper about 50 miles offshore.
The Skipper was taken into custody by US authorities on the tenth of December and has been blacklisted by multiple governments. When it was intercepted, it was falsely sailing under the ensign of the nation of Guyana.
This interception was succeeded by the interception of a another tanker, the Centuries. It – unlike the Skipper – was not under official restrictions when it was taken into American control.
US authorities are currently pursuing a third ship, which has been named by the maritime risk group Vanguard as the Bella 1 tanker. The US President stated recently that “we’ll end up getting it”.
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 typical pace of 11 knots, may have “approximately a month of diesel left unless her speed drops”.
The monitoring service further stated the tanker is “probably heading in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.
