Environment

Satellite imagery shows Iranian oil tankers at country’s major terminal disappearing amid fears of Israeli counterattack

Published

1 month ago

October 4, 2024

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A general view of the Port of Kharg Island Oil Terminal in Iran on March 12, 2017.

Fatemeh Bahrami | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Satellite imagery revealed a number of oil tankers vacating the waters around Iran’s key Kharg Island oil loading terminal, amid fears of an Israeli counterattack on Tehran’s energy infrastructure.

“The National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) appears to be fearing an imminent attack by Israel. Their empty VLCC supertankers vacated the country’s largest oil terminal, Kharg Island, yesterday,” tracking firm TankerTrackers.com wrote in a post on the X social media platform on Thursday evening.

Markets have been on edge over the possibility of an Israeli retaliation, after Iran launched a missile attack against the Jewish state earlier this week.

Satellite imagery captured by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission on Sept. 25 shows a number of VLCC (very large crude carrier) supertankers in the waters around Kharg Island, Iran’s principal oil export terminal. VLCC tankers are specifically designed to transport large volumes of crude oil.

Satellite imagery captured by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission on Sept. 25 shows a number of VLCC supertankers in the waters around Kharg Island, Iran’s principal oil export terminal.

This image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2024 processed by Sentinel Hub

Imagery of the same location on Oct. 3 — two days after Iran launched a volley of around 180 missiles at Israel for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah — shows an empty sea around Kharg Island, with no ships in sight.

Satellite imagery captured by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission on Oct. 3 shows an empty sea around Kharg Island, with no visible ships.

This image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2024 processed by Sentinel Hub

CNBC could not independently verify the footage.

“Please note that crude oil loadings continue, but all of the extra vacant shipping capacity has been removed from the anchorage of Kharg Island. This is the first time we see anything like this since the 2018 sanctions round,” TankerTrackers.com added in a separate X post.

Iranian tankers are known for frequently switching off their transponders and manipulating their automatic identification system (AIS) in order to conceal their movements to skirt U.S. sanctions on the country’s oil exports. This is a different kind of development, says Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com.

His analysis of the satellite imagery located the Iranian tankers as currently being “in the middle of the Persian Gulf, west of the island,” he told CNBC.

Kharg Island: Iran’s largest oil terminal

Located fifteen miles off Iran’s northwestern coast, the Kharg Island terminal handles more than 90% of the country’s crude exports. Its loading capacity has increased to 7 million barrels per day, according to Vesseltracker.com, although Iran does not currently export such levels.

Several energy analysts predict that oil prices could see an immediate-term spike of as much as 5% in the event of an Israeli attack on the terminal. Around 4% of global oil supply is at risk in the event of strikes on energy infrastructure in Iran, which is one of OPEC’s largest crude producers.

“There are plenty of facilities on [the] Iranian side and also [on the] Israeli side that could all be targeted in terms of critical infrastructure,” Sara Vakhshouri, founder and president at SVB Energy, told CNBC’s Capital Connection on Wednesday.

Expect a 'much more significant' Israeli retaliation against Iran after attack: Karim Sadjadpour

“That infrastructure is all connected,” she said, stressing that the sheer size of Iran means “it is impossible to somehow secure all of it.”

Crude futures are on track for gains of around 8% week-to-date, as markets await what Israel’s government has promised to be a “severe response” to the Iranian offensive.

Oil prices jumped 5% on Thursday and are headed for their best week in over a year following comments by U.S. President Joe Biden. Asked whether the White House would support retaliatory Israeli strikes on Iranian oil facilities, Biden on Thursday told reporters, “We’re discussing that. I think that would be a little… anyway,” breaking off mid-sentence.

The December delivery contract of global benchmark Brent was trading at $78.49 per barrel on Friday at 9:30 a.m. in London, up 1.1% from the Thursday close. The front-month November U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were trading at $74.49 per barrel, higher by 1% from the previous day’s settlement.

Goldman Sachs says crude could spike by $20 on Iran oil shock

Environment

Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

Published

6 hours ago

November 5, 2024

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Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

On today’s episode of Quick Charge, Tesla’s Cybertruck is now available in Canada – and, like in the US, there’s no waiting! Plus, we’ve got an “actually” smart summon Tesla that’s actually stuck, GM reaches a sales milestone, and we get a brand-new title sponsor!

Today’s episode is the first with our new title sponsor, BLUETTI – a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems.

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New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonusLucid proves than an EV company can keep its promises while Xiaomi teams up with Chevrolet and Honda to prove – at least conceptually – that records are made to be broken. audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news!

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Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show!

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Environment

This ‘supercharger on wheels’ brings fast charging to you [update]

Published

8 hours ago

November 4, 2024

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This 'supercharger on wheels' brings fast charging to you [update]

Mobile car care company Yoshi Mobility launched a DC fast charging EV mobile unit that it likens to “a supercharger on wheels.”

November 4, 2024 update: Yoshi Mobility will only be charging EVs on the side of the road now – it announced today that it’s selling its fleet fueling operation to EZFill Holdings (Nasdaq: EZFL).

It was originally founded as a direct-to-consumer, mobile fueling business in 2016, but now it’s going to focus on mobile EV charging, virtual vehicle inspections for partners like Uber and Turo, and onsite preventative maintenance.

Bryan Frist, Yoshi Mobility’s CEO & cofounder, said, “By spinning off our fuel business and focusing all of our energy on solving hair-on-fire problems that fleet owners face, we are meeting the changing needs of enterprise customers while making the future of transportation safer, cleaner, and more sustainable.”

May 22, 2024: Yoshi Mobility saw that its existing customers needed mobile EV charging in places where infrastructure has yet to be installed, so the Nashville-based company decided to bring the mountain to Moses.

“We recognized a demand among our customers for convenient daily charging, reliable private charging networks, and proper charging infrastructure to support their fleet vehicles as they transition to electric,” said Dan Hunter, Yoshi Mobility’s chief EV officer and cofounder.

The company says its 240 kW mobile DC fast charger, which can turn “any EV” into a mobile charging unit, is the first fully electric mobile charger available. It can provide multiple charges in a single trip but doesn’t detail how they charge the DC fast charger or who manufactured it. (I asked for more details, and they replied that they won’t disclose client names or the manufacturer of its DC fast charger yet.)

Yoshi is launching its mobile charger on two GM BrightDrop Zevo 600s and will introduce additional vehicles throughout 2024. It aims for full commercialization by Q1 2025. (I wonder if the Zevo 600 ever charges itself? Yes, I asked that too.)

Yoshi Mobility says it’s already deployed its EV charging solutions to service “major OEMs, autonomous vehicle companies, and rideshare operators” across the US. Its initial customers are made up of large EV operators managing “hundreds” of light-duty vehicles requiring up to 1 megawatt of energy per day that don’t yet have grid-connected EV chargers. I’ve asked Yoshi for details of who it’s working with, and will update if they share that info.

The company says pricing is based on location and enterprise charging needs. Once under contract for service, the service will be deployed to US-based customers within 10 days.

To date, Yoshi Mobility has raised more than $60 million, with investments from GM Ventures, Bridgestone, ExxonMobil, and Y-Combinator in Silicon Valley.

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Environment

Marqeta shares plunge more than 30% on big forecast miss

Published

8 hours ago

November 4, 2024

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Marqeta shares plunge more than 30% on big forecast miss

Marqeta celebrates its initial public offering at the Nasdaq on June 9, 2021.

Source: The Nasdaq

Marqeta shares tumbled more than 30% in extended trading on Monday after the company issued weaker-than-expected guidance for the fourth quarter.

Here’s how the company did compared with Wall Street estimates, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Loss per share: 6 cents adjusted vs. a loss of 5 cents expected
Revenue: $128 million vs. $128.1 million expected

While third-quarter results showed a slight disappointment on the top and bottom lines, Marqeta’s forecast for the current period was more concerning.

The payment processing firm said revenue in the fourth quarter will increase 10% to 12% from a year earlier. Analysts were looking for growth of more than 17%, according to LSEG.

Marqeta, which primarily functions as a card-issuing platform, attributed the guidance miss to “heightened scrutiny of the banking environment and specific customer program changes.” The company has been struggling for a while, and its stock is now down more than 80% from its peak in 2021, the year it went public. The stock was down 15% for the year prior to the report.

Total processing volume of $74 billion was up more than 30% from a year earlier. Net revenue and gross profit were up 18% and 24%, respectively.

Marqeta’s digital commerce business sells payment technology designed to detect potential fraud and ensure that money is properly routed. It also issues customized physical cards that look like a credit or debit card that can be used for point-of-sale purchases.

The company has been trying to break into the buy now, pay later business with a recently launched product called Marqeta Flex. The service brings BNPL from lenders such as Affirm or Klarna to any credit card wherever Mastercard and Visa are accepted.

“It’s an orchestration layer, but it’s tied to issuing and processing and disputes and chargebacks,” CEO Simon Khalaf told CNBC at Money2020 in Las Vegas last week. “So it is not actually a Wild West in BNPL. It is actually very well established. And there is a reason why a lot of people are jumping to it.”