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Orbital data and ship tracking data has verified that the oil tanker Skipper – the first vessel apprehended by the US for reportedly carrying embargoed oil from the Venezuelan regime – is currently off the coast of Texas.

Vantor orbital photographs dated 21 December shows the ship is near Galveston, while Automatic Identification System ship-tracking data from a maritime data service presently places the Skipper about 50 miles offshore.

The tanker Skipper was seized by US authorities on the tenth of December and has been blacklisted by multiple nations. At the time it was intercepted, it was incorrectly flying the flag of the nation of Guyana.

This interception was succeeded by the interception of a another oil vessel, the Centuries tanker. This ship – in contrast to the Skipper – was not under sanctions when it was taken into US custody.

American agencies are now targeting a third such ship, which has been named by the maritime risk group a risk firm as the Bella 1 tanker. The US President stated yesterday that “it will ultimately be secured”.

Writing on the social media platform X, the maritime monitoring group noted the Bella 1 has been “underway for over a month” and, at an typical pace of 11 nautical miles per hour, may have “approximately a month of diesel remaining unless her speed decreases”.

The monitoring service further stated the tanker is “probably heading in a southeasterly direction towards South Africa”.