Satellite Image Shows Initial Venezuelan Oil Ship Confiscated by US is Currently Off Texas.
US personnel roped onto the deck of the Skipper on December 10th.
Orbital data and ship tracking information has confirmed that the oil tanker named Skipper – the first vessel seized by the US for allegedly carrying embargoed crude from Venezuela – is currently off the coast of the state of Texas.
A satellite firm's satellite imagery dated 21 December indicates the ship is in the vicinity of the port of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System ship-tracking feeds from a maritime data service presently places the vessel about 50 miles from the coast.
The Skipper was seized by US authorities on the tenth of December and has been blacklisted by several governments. When it was seized, it was incorrectly sailing under the ensign of the nation of Guyana.
This interception was succeeded by the capture of a another tanker, the Centuries tanker. It – unlike the first vessel – was not under official restrictions when it was brought under American control.
American agencies are currently targeting a third ship, which has been named by the risk management group a risk firm as the Bella 1. The US President said yesterday that “we’ll end up getting it”.
Writing on the social media platform X, the TankerTrackers group said the vessel Bella 1 has been “in transit for over a month” and, at an average speed of 11 nautical miles per hour, may have “approximately a month of fuel remaining unless her velocity decreases”.
The monitoring service added the vessel is “probably heading in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.
