Satellite Image Reveals First Venezuelan Tanker Confiscated by US is Now Near Texas.
US personnel boarding the deck of the tanker Skipper on December 10th.
Satellite imagery and ship tracking information has verified that the oil tanker Skipper – the first vessel seized by the United States for allegedly transporting embargoed crude from the Venezuelan regime – is now positioned near of the state of Texas.
A satellite firm's orbital photographs from 21 December indicates the tanker is in the vicinity of the port of Galveston, while AIS ship-tracking feeds from MarineTraffic presently places the Skipper about 80km from the coast.
The tanker Skipper was seized by US authorities on the tenth of December and has been blacklisted by several nations. At the time it was seized, it was falsely flying the flag of the nation of Guyana.
This interception was followed by the interception of a another oil vessel, the Centuries tanker. It – unlike the first vessel – 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 risk management group Vanguard as the Bella 1 tanker. The US President stated yesterday that “we’ll end up getting it”.
Writing on the social media platform X, the TankerTrackers group noted the Bella 1 has been “in transit for over a month” and, at an average speed of 11 knots, may have “approximately a month of diesel left unless her speed drops”.
The group further stated the tanker is “probably heading south-east towards South Africa”.
