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Satellite imagery and ship tracking information has confirmed that the oil tanker named Skipper – the initial vessel apprehended by the United States for allegedly carrying embargoed oil 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 AIS vessel-tracking data from a maritime data service presently places the Skipper about 80km offshore.

The Skipper was taken into custody by American officials on the tenth of December and has been blacklisted by multiple nations. At the time it was intercepted, it was incorrectly sailing under the ensign of the nation of Guyana.

This seizure was succeeded by the capture of a second oil vessel, the Centuries. This ship – unlike the Skipper – was not under official restrictions 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. The US President stated yesterday that “we’ll end up getting it”.

Writing on X, the TankerTrackers group said the Bella 1 has been “underway for over a month” and, at an average speed of 11 nautical miles per hour, may have “approximately a month of fuel left unless her speed drops”.

The monitoring service further stated the vessel is “probably heading in a southeasterly direction towards the South African coast”.