Satellite Image Shows First Venezuelan Tanker Seized by US is Currently Off the Texas Coast.
US agents boarding the deck of the Skipper on 10 December.
Orbital data and vessel monitoring information has verified that the crude carrier Skipper – the first vessel seized by the United States for allegedly transporting embargoed crude from Venezuela – is now positioned near of the state of Texas.
A satellite firm's orbital photographs dated 21 December shows the tanker is in the vicinity of the port of Galveston, while AIS vessel-tracking data from a maritime data service currently places the vessel about 50 miles from the coast.
The Skipper was taken into custody by US authorities on the tenth of December and has been blacklisted by several nations. At the time it was intercepted, it was falsely flying the ensign of Guyana.
This interception was succeeded by the capture of a another tanker, the Centuries. It – unlike the Skipper – was not under official restrictions when it was taken into American control.
American agencies are now pursuing a third such vessel, which has been identified by the maritime risk group Vanguard as the Bella 1. The US President stated yesterday that “we’ll end up getting it”.
Writing on X, the TankerTrackers group noted the vessel Bella 1 has been “in transit for over a month” and, at an typical pace of 11 nautical miles per hour, may have “approximately a month of diesel left unless her velocity decreases”.
The monitoring service added the vessel is “probably traveling in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.