{"id":363665,"date":"2025-12-23T11:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T11:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/363665\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T11:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T11:32:08","slug":"bbc-verify-satellite-image-shows-first-venezuela-linked-tanker-seized-by-us-is-now-off-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/363665\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Verify: Satellite image shows first Venezuela-linked tanker seized by US is now off Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Where is the seized oil tanker Skipper now?published at 10:36 GMT<\/p>\n<p>10:36 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-8kvzjk-Contributor etflsgg2\">Kayleen Devlin and Joshua Cheetham<br \/>BBC Verify<\/p>\n<p>      <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A US-handout video showing armed personnel roping from a helicopter on to the deck of the Skipper\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dcfbee8a-e3eb-4137-a412-1e5a63e1897d.jpg.webp.webp\"  width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" class=\"ssrcss-11yxrdo-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, US Attorney GeneralImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">US personnel roped onto the deck of the Skipper on 10 December<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Satellite imagery and ship tracking data has confirmed the oil tanker Skipper &#8211; the first vessel seized by the US for allegedly transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela &#8211; is now off the coast of Texas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Vantor satellite imagery dated 21 December shows the tanker is near Galveston while AIS ship-tracking data from MarineTraffic currently places Skipper about 80km (50 miles) offshore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Skipper was seized by US authorities on 10 December and has been sanctioned by several governments. At the time it was seized it was falsely sailing under the flag of Guyana.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The seizure was followed by the interception of a second tanker, Centuries. It &#8211; unlike Skipper &#8211; was not under sanctions when it was taken into US custody.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">US authorities are now pursuing a third vessel which has been identified by the risk management group Vanguard as Bella 1. President Donald Trump said yesterday that \u201cwe\u2019ll end up getting it\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Writing on X, the TankerTrackers group said Bella 1 has been \u201cin transit for 39 days\u201d and, at an average speed of 11 knots, may have \u201canother 28 to 35 days of fuel remaining unless her speed drops\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It added the vessel is \u201clikely heading south-east towards South Africa\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Where is the seized oil tanker Skipper now?published at 10:36 GMT 10:36 GMT Kayleen Devlin and Joshua CheethamBBC&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-363665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}