Oil Watch

Oil Watch turns satellite data (SAR) into ground truth on oil-shipping chokepoints. Roughly a fifth of the world's oil moves through the Strait of Hormuz and when it's disrupted, prices move globally but traders, insurers and governments are stuck reading rumor, social media, and AIS transponder data that ships switch off exactly when it matters most. Oil Watch pulls free Sentinel-1 synthetic-aperture radar (which sees through clouds, darkness, and "dark" vessels), detects ships, has Claude verify each detection, and filters out fixed features like islands and rigs. The result is an imagery-grounded read of vessel traffic over the strait's closure, overlaid with Brent crude prices and a sourced news timeline that you can act on.