The tanker seized by US forces on Wednesday off the coast of Venezuela had a history of falsifying or concealing its location, apparently to hide its activities, according to vessel-tracking data.

The United States confirmed on Wednesday night that its forces had seized a vessel during an operation involving helicopters off the Venezuelan coast.

BBC Verify confirmed that it was the Skipper tanker by comparing a signal seen in images released by the United States with a reference photo provided by TankerTrackers.com, a website that tracks crude oil shipments.

Data available on publicly accessible tracking websites offers an incomplete picture of the vessel's movements, which, prior to its seizure, had not revealed its position since November 7.

The maritime analysis firm Kpler also suggested that the vessel had been involved in a ship-to-ship oil transfer.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi described the Skipper as a “tanker used to transport sanctioned crude from Venezuela and Iran.”

The US Treasury Department first sanctioned the vessel in 2022, when it sailed under the name Adisa, and accused it of being part of an “international smuggling network of oil.”

The 20-year-old Skipper was sailing under the Guyanese flag, but the Guyanese government claimed in a statement that it “was falsely flying the Guyanese flag, as it is not registered in Guyana.”

Experts told BBC Verify that the Skipper was likely part of the so-called “dark fleet,” a global network of tankers seeking to evade oil sanctions by concealing their ownership, identity, and voyage history.

How it concealed its position

According to a UN treaty,All vessels of a certain tonnage are required to have an onboard tracking system called an Automatic Identification System (AIS).

This transmits information about ships, including their location, which can be tracked on websites such as MarineTraffic.

But there is an incomplete and misleading public record of the Skipper's movements: according to MarineTraffic, its last known stop was in Soroosh, Iran, on July 9, where it arrived after stops in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates.

Kpler suggests this is part of a pattern of misleading reporting by the Skipper.

Analysts at the firm indicated that the vessel had previously loaded crude oil from Venezuela and Iran while falsifying its position through its onboard tracking system, in a process known as spoofing.

Venezuela possesses some of the world's largest oil reserves, but its exports were sanctioned by the United States in 2019 in an attempt to force the outflow of oil from the US. power of the government of President Nicolas Maduro, widely accused of electoral fraud.

The company noted that while its AIS system showed the vessel at the Basra oil terminal (Iraq) on July 7 and 8, terminal reports did not record its presence.

However, the Skipper loaded crude oil on Kharg Island, Iran, according to Kpler.

It subsequently sailed east, tracking data shows, where Kpler suggested the Skipper carried out a ship-to-ship cargo transfer between August 11 and 13.

The cargo was later offloaded in China, where, according to Kpler, it was “falsely declared.”

It then returned via Iran and sailed into the Caribbean.

The Skipper last reported its position on November 7, several miles off the coast of Guyana. Its location reappeared on December 10, after the US operation. During that period, satellite images identified by TankerTrackers.com and confirmed by BBC Verify show that the Skipper was present in Puerto Jose, Venezuela, on November 18, without appearing at that time on tracking portals. Since the imposition of sanctions, analysts say it has become common for vessels to falsify or conceal their position while loading oil in Venezuela. Kpler analysts indicated that the vessel loaded “at least 1.1 million barrels of Merey crude” on November 16 at the terminal and that its declared destination was Cuba. There is also evidence that the Skipper participated in a cargo transfer with another vessel on December 7, a few days before being boarded by US troops. Satellite images seen by Kpler appeared to show the exchange, identifying one of the vessels as the Skipper. The transfer took place off the coast of Venezuela, near the city of Barcelona. According to MarineTraffic, the Skipper had last appeared off the coast of Guyana weeks earlier. This type of activity to evade sanctions is not unusual for Venezuelan oil exports, according to Kpler. The company stated that tankers often transfer their cargo off the coast of Malaysia before the oil is imported by China.Former Belgian naval lieutenant and analyst Frederik Van Lokeren told BBC Verify that while such ship-to-ship transfers are neither illegal nor wrong, they are “extremely unusual.” He explained that they are usually an indication that vessels are trying to circumvent sanctions by transferring oil to ships not publicly associated with smuggling. Van Lokeren noted that Venezuela's refining capacity has been significantly reduced in recent years, and the country relies on its allies, Iran and Russia, to convert its crude oil into more refined products. commercially profitable.

Who owns the Skipper?

MarineTraffic reports that the beneficial owner and operator is Nigeria-based Thomarose Global Ventures Ltd., and the registered owner is Marshall Islands-based Triton Navigation Corp.

In 2022, the US Treasury Department that Triton was being used by sanctioned Russian oil tycoon Viktor Artemov to facilitate a global oil smuggling network.

At the time, US officials stated that Artemov used an extensive network of ships, often registered in opaque ways, to transport Iranian oil.

In its statement, the US Treasury Department claimed that Triton had “provided material assistance, sponsored or provided financial, material or technological support, or goods or services, to or on behalf of Artemov.”