🔗 Share this article Imagery Image Shows First Venezuela-Linked Oil Ship Seized by American Authorities is Now Near the Texas Coast. American agents boarding the deck of the tanker Skipper on 10 December. Orbital data and ship tracking information has confirmed that the oil tanker Skipper – the first vessel apprehended by the United States for allegedly transporting embargoed crude from Venezuela – is now positioned near of Texas. Vantor satellite imagery dated 21 December shows the ship is in the vicinity of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System ship-tracking data from a maritime data service currently places the Skipper about 80km offshore. The Skipper was seized by US authorities on the tenth of December and has been blacklisted by several governments. At the time it was seized, it was incorrectly sailing under the flag of Guyana. This interception was succeeded by the interception of a second oil vessel, the Centuries tanker. It – unlike the Skipper – was not yet under official restrictions when it was taken into American control. US authorities are currently pursuing a third ship, which has been named by the maritime risk group Vanguard as the Bella 1. The US President said yesterday that “it will ultimately be secured”. Writing on X, the maritime monitoring group said the vessel Bella 1 has been “underway for 39 days” and, at an typical pace of 11 nautical miles per hour, may have “approximately a month of fuel left unless her speed drops”. The group further stated the vessel is “probably heading in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.