American personnel roped onto the vessel of the tanker Skipper on December 10th.
Satellite imagery and vessel monitoring data has confirmed that the crude carrier named Skipper – the initial vessel apprehended by the United States for allegedly transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela – is currently off the coast of the state of Texas.
Vantor satellite imagery from 21 December indicates the tanker is in the vicinity of the port of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System ship-tracking feeds from MarineTraffic currently places the vessel about 50 miles offshore.
The tanker Skipper was seized by US authorities on the tenth of December and has been sanctioned by multiple governments. At the time it was seized, it was falsely sailing under the ensign of Guyana.
This interception was succeeded by the capture of a second tanker, the Centuries tanker. It – in contrast to the Skipper – was not yet under official restrictions when it was taken into American control.
US authorities are now targeting a third vessel, which has been named by the maritime risk group Vanguard as the Bella 1 tanker. President Donald Trump said recently that “it will ultimately be secured”.
Writing on the social media platform X, the TankerTrackers group said the Bella 1 has been “underway for 39 days” and, at an typical pace of 11 knots, may have “another 28 to 35 days of fuel left unless her velocity decreases”.
The group further stated the tanker is “likely traveling in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.
