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Satellite imagery and ship tracking information has verified that the oil tanker named Skipper – the initial vessel seized by the United States for reportedly carrying embargoed crude from the Venezuelan regime – is now off the coast of the state of Texas.

Vantor orbital photographs dated 21 December indicates the tanker is in the vicinity of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System vessel-tracking data from MarineTraffic presently positions the Skipper about 50 miles offshore.

The Skipper was seized by American officials on 10 December and has been blacklisted by several governments. When it was intercepted, it was falsely flying the flag of Guyana.

This seizure was succeeded by the interception of a another tanker, the Centuries. This ship – unlike the Skipper – was not under official restrictions when it was brought under US custody.

American agencies are currently pursuing a third such ship, which has been named by the maritime risk group a risk firm as the Bella 1. President Donald Trump said yesterday that “we’ll end up getting it”.

Writing on the social media platform X, the TankerTrackers 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 velocity decreases”.

The monitoring service added the vessel is “probably heading south-east towards South Africa”.