Skipper port call in 2025
marine transportation
A large crude oil tanker from 2024 seized by the US military off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday shows a “clear pattern” of falsifying its location to hide its true location, a leading energy consulting firm said.
And data suggests that the Guyana-flagged tanker, identified as “Skipper,” has been transporting sanctioned oil from Iran and Venezuela since 2022.
Both countries’ oil industries are under U.S. sanctions, and Skipper has been under sanctions from the Office of Foreign Assets Control since 2022.
Matt Smith, chief U.S. analyst at consulting firm Kpler, said the Skipper secretly loaded 1.1 million barrels of oil in mid-November.
Smith said the ship appeared to be headed for Cuba, but after loading, it was anchored off the coast of Venezuela.
According to Kpler data, there was evidence that Skipper engaged in so-called AIS spoofing to hide his location on more than 80 days in total over the past two years.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard website, AIS (Automatic Identification System Data) provides real-time information about a vessel’s location and includes the vessel’s name, course, speed, classification, call sign, and registration number.
According to Kpler data, multiple ship-to-ship transfers of cargo occurred while the captain’s true location was hidden on the AIS network.
Dimitris Ampatzidis, Kpler’s risk and compliance manager, said Skipper had displayed a “clear pattern of deceptive operations that went far beyond what the AIS communications had claimed.”
Satellite images show the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Skipper and another vessel believed to have been captured on December 10 off the coast of Port Jose, Venezuela, on November 18, 2025.
Planet Lab | Reuters
Kpler said three cases of AIS spoofing by ship captains were recorded in Egypt, Iran, the Mediterranean, Ghana and Nigeria in 2024.
“In particular, through extended AIS spoofing episodes, falsified location information was broadcast,” Ampatsidis said. “The captain engaged in activities completely inconsistent with the declared voyage, including authorized loadings in Iran and Venezuela.
“These actions form a coherent picture: the vessels are deliberately designed to operate in defiance of transparency, using digital manipulation and covert logistics to mask the authorized flow of crude oil while giving the appearance of normal maritime traffic,” Ampatsidis said.
According to Kpler data, 2025 port call data shows the skipper transported oil from the port of Jose in Venezuela and the port of Kharg Island in Iran.
In 2024, Skipper’s port calls included the port of Banias in Syria and Kharg Island in Iran. And in 2023, the captain visited the port of José in Venezuela.
The Skipper is owned by Marshall Islands-based Triton Navigation Corp., and the beneficial cargo owner, vessel manager and operator is Nigeria-based Thomasose Global Ventures Ltd., according to Kpler data.
Triton Navigation has been on the OFAC Sanctions List since November 2022.
“We believe the purpose of seizing the sanctioned oil tankers is to warn oil buyers and tanker owners operating in the shadow fleet against loading Venezuelan oil, reduce revenue for the Maduro regime, and ultimately hasten its departure,” said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.
“With oil prices hovering below $60 a barrel, the regime doesn’t seem too worried about losing oil supply to the Venezuelan market, because there is plenty of it,” Lipou said.
“On the other hand, China will be unhappy about losing access to heavily discounted oil supplies.”
The seizure comes as President Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. President Trump said Maduro’s “days are numbered.”
