American agents roped onto the deck of the Skipper on December 10th.
Orbital data and ship tracking information has verified that the crude carrier Skipper – the initial vessel seized by the United States for reportedly transporting sanctioned crude from the Venezuelan regime – is now off the coast of Texas.
Vantor orbital photographs dated 21 December indicates the tanker is in the vicinity of the port of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System ship-tracking data from MarineTraffic presently positions the Skipper about 80km offshore.
The tanker Skipper was taken into custody by American officials on 10 December and has been blacklisted by several governments. When it was seized, it was falsely sailing under the ensign of Guyana.
This seizure was followed by the interception of a another oil vessel, the Centuries. This ship – in contrast to the Skipper – was not under sanctions when it was brought under American control.
American agencies are now targeting a third such vessel, which has been named by the risk management group Vanguard as the Bella 1 tanker. President Donald Trump stated recently that “we’ll end up getting it”.
Writing on X, the maritime monitoring group said 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 fuel left unless her velocity drops”.
The group further stated the tanker is “likely heading in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.
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