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Satellite imagery and vessel monitoring data has confirmed that the oil tanker Skipper – the initial vessel seized by the United States for allegedly carrying sanctioned oil from Venezuela – is currently positioned near of the state of Texas.

Vantor satellite imagery from 21 December indicates the ship is near the port of Galveston, while Automatic Identification System vessel-tracking data from a maritime data service presently places the vessel about 50 miles from the coast.

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 falsely sailing under the flag of the nation of Guyana.

This interception was succeeded by the capture of a second tanker, the Centuries tanker. This ship – unlike the Skipper – was not under sanctions when it was brought under US custody.

US authorities are currently targeting a third vessel, which has been named by the risk management group Vanguard as the Bella 1 tanker. President Donald Trump said yesterday that “we’ll end up getting it”.

Writing on the social media platform X, the maritime monitoring group said the Bella 1 has been “in transit for over a month” and, at an typical pace of 11 knots, may have “approximately a month of fuel remaining unless her speed drops”.

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