The oil tanker Skipper was seized by US forces near Venezuela. This vessel has a history of faking its location to hide its activities. Before the seizure, it hadn’t reported its position since November 7, raising suspicions. Ship tracking sites like TankerTrackers.com matched video footage of the Skipper to a reference photo, confirming its identity.
The US Attorney General stated the Skipper was used to transport oil from Venezuela and Iran, both of which are under US sanctions. The US Treasury had already sanctioned the ship in 2022 due to its involvement in an international oil smuggling network.
Interestingly, the Skipper has been flagged as a Guyanese vessel, but authorities clarified that it isn’t registered there. Experts believe it’s part of a “dark fleet”—a group of ships that aim to evade sanctions by hiding their identities.
According to a UN treaty, ships over a certain tonnage must have an Automatic Identification System (AIS) on board to broadcast their locations. However, the Skipper’s AIS data was misleading. While it was last reported at an Iranian port on July 9, Kpler analysts suggest it was actually loading crude oil while disguising its location through spoofing techniques. The ship often loaded oil in Venezuela, which has some of the largest oil reserves globally. Following US sanctions in 2019, Venezuela’s oil exports have significantly decreased, pushing many tankers to hide their activities.
The Skipper reportedly made two significant trips, loading over a million barrels of oil and conducting a ship-to-ship transfer off the Venezuelan coastline days before its seizure. This practice is not illegal in itself but is often associated with evading sanctions.
Frederik Van Lokeren, a former Belgian naval officer, explained that ship-to-ship transfers are rare and typically suggest sanction evasion. He added that Venezuela’s refining capabilities have been degraded, making it reliant on allies like Iran and Russia for processing its crude oil.
Ownership details reveal that the tanker is managed by a Nigeria-based company, Thomarose Global Ventures Ltd., while the registered owner is Triton Navigation Corp., based in the Marshall Islands. Triton was previously noted for connections to Viktor Artemov, a sanctioned Russian oil magnate allegedly using a network of obscurely registered ships to transport Iranian oil.
With sanctions driving these covert movements, it’s clear that a complex and shadowy network operates in the global oil market. As more ships like the Skipper are seized, it highlights the challenges of enforcing international sanctions and the lengths to which companies will go to skirt regulations.
