{"id":86846,"date":"2025-12-13T15:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T15:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/86846\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T15:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T15:51:11","slug":"supertanker-skipper-seized-by-us-near-venezuela-is-heading-to-houston-sources-say-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/86846\/","title":{"rendered":"Supertanker Skipper seized by US near Venezuela is heading to Houston, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) – The oil supertanker Skipper that was seized by the U.S. near Venezuela this week as part of an increased pressure strategy against President Nicolas Maduro, is heading to Houston, two sources said on Friday.<\/p>\n

The Very Large Crude Carrier is carrying about 1.85 million barrels of Venezuela’s Merey heavy crude, according to satellite images analyzed by TankerTrackers.com. It is too large to transit through the Houston ship channel and will need to anchor nearby and offload the cargo to smaller ships, the port said.<\/p>\n

Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n

“At this time, we have not received any notifications or agent filings indicating that the M\/V SKIPPER is scheduled to call the Port of Houston,” the Greater Houston Port Bureau’s President Eric Carrero said.<\/p>\n

The Houston-Galveston sector of the U.S. Coast Guard did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA, the cargo’s seller, did not reply to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said this week the tanker was intercepted and retained under a seizure warrant. Guyana’s maritime authority said it was falsely flying the country’s flag.<\/p>\n

The seizure<\/a> of the sanctioned oil tanker has sharply escalated tensions between Washington and Caracas. Washington is preparing to intercept more<\/a> ships transporting Venezuelan oil, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Reporting by Jonathan Saul in London, Marianna Parraga and Arathy Somasekhar in Houston; Editing by Nathan Crooks, Rod Nickel<\/p>\n

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n

Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a>\"Marianna<\/a><\/p>\n

Focused on energy-related sanctions, corruption and money laundering with 20 years of experience covering Latin America’s oil and gas industries. Born in Venezuela and based in Houston, she is author of the book “Oro Rojo” about Venezuela’s troubled state-run company PDVSA and Mom to three boys.<\/p>\n

\"Arathy<\/a><\/p>\n

Houston-based energy reporter focused on oil markets and energy companies. Arathy closely tracks U.S. crude supply and its impact on global markets, ever changing crude oil flows, and reports on U.S. shale producers and oilfield service companies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) – The oil supertanker Skipper that was seized by the U.S. near Venezuela this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[41513,5932,41523,5916,41514,7372,22971,7373,7374,19550,18045,19567,451,19568,19569,41530,5918,5920,56,58,57,19118,41515,7357,5933,12487,5924,41516,41531,41517,41518,7379,7380,7365,7385,30701,41526,41525,41529,30702,19119,41528,41519,41520,7387,41527,22969,5936,7386,19115,41521,393,41522,41524,7368],"class_list":["post-86846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-amcru","tag-amers","tag-caribn","tag-com","tag-cru","tag-destocatpm","tag-destousnrg","tag-destoustpm","tag-destouswdm","tag-dip","tag-emrg","tag-ener","tag-energy","tag-enff","tag-eng","tag-enqsvc","tag-enr","tag-gen","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-latam","tag-latcru","tag-mtpix","tag-namer","tag-news1","tag-nrg","tag-nrgreg","tag-ogtr","tag-oilg","tag-oili","tag-packageus-top-news","tag-packageworld-news","tag-pol","tag-pxp","tag-regs","tag-repiexploration-production","tag-repigovernance","tag-repipipelines-transport","tag-rsbiregulatory-oversight","tag-samer","tag-sbtank","tag-shpng","tag-tnkr","tag-topcmb","tag-topicenergy-oil-gas","tag-topicenergy-transition","tag-topicmarkets-commodities-energy","tag-topnws","tag-trd","tag-trnspt","tag-us","tag-uscru","tag-ve","tag-wash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}