American personnel boarding the vessel of the tanker Skipper on December 10th.
Orbital data and vessel monitoring data has verified that the oil tanker named Skipper – the first vessel apprehended by the United States for reportedly carrying sanctioned crude from the Venezuelan regime – is now positioned near of Texas.
Vantor satellite imagery dated 21 December shows the tanker is near the port of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System vessel-tracking feeds from a maritime data service currently positions the vessel about 50 miles offshore.
The Skipper was seized by American officials on 10 December and has been sanctioned by multiple governments. When it was intercepted, it was incorrectly sailing under the ensign of the nation of Guyana.
This seizure was succeeded by the capture of a second tanker, the Centuries tanker. This ship – unlike the first vessel – was not under sanctions when it was taken into US custody.
US authorities are now pursuing a third such ship, which has been identified by the maritime risk group Vanguard as the Bella 1 tanker. The US President said recently that “it will ultimately be secured”.
Writing on X, the maritime monitoring group noted the vessel Bella 1 has been “in transit for 39 days” and, at an average speed of 11 nautical miles per hour, may have “approximately a month of fuel remaining unless her speed drops”.
The monitoring service added the tanker is “likely heading in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.
