MILAN – As U.S. satellite imagery companies have pulled back from sharing visuals of Iran and the broader area around the Gulf conflict, European Earth-observation firms are moving to fill the vacuum.
The new business is coming from global energy traders, insurers, shipping firms and news organizations, all of whom depend on commercial satellite imagery to monitor one of the world’s most sensitive waterways: the Strait of Hormuz.
“In the energy sector, Earth observation data has become a core part of the business in the last five years,” Antoine Rostand, president and co-founder of French environmental intelligence company Kayrros, told SpaceNews.
“Since the war in Iran there has been even more interest in monitoring the situation, and it was very surprising for us to see that a flow of information previously coming from U.S. companies was suddenly cut off. It was a shock for everybody.”
The change began after several American Earth-observation providers restricted access to imagery tied to Iran and surrounding conflict areas.
