How purchases of sanctioned Iranian jet fuel were disguised by Myanmar
In December 2025, the US-sanctioned tanker Reef arrived in Myanmar waters with some 113,000 barrels of fuel backed by sham paperwork.
Myanmar-based energy broker Dynamic Wave ordered the shipment, agreeing in a sales contract inked with Thailand’s Tawan-Oil Trading to supposedly take delivery of a similar amount of South African diesel. But the $15.8 million agreement, which Reuters viewed, was a charade: there was no such trade between South Africa and Myanmar in 2025, according to data from the United Nations and Vortexa, a shipping and energy data provider.
In reality, Reef carried jet fuel from Iran to Myanmar, according to records of fuel shipments to Myanmar, as well as satellite images and analysis by SynMax Intelligence, which tracked the tanker’s journey from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas to Southeast Asia.
The deception was needed because the US in 2023 imposed targeted sanctions on Myanmar’s jet-fuel industry. The US did so citing the deadly bombing campaign waged by the Southeast Asian country’s military on civilian targets as part of an effort to crush a rebel-led insurgency. All purchasers of Iranian oil and fuel are also exposed to sweeping American sanctions.
Details of how Myanmar disguised purchases of Iranian jet fuel, as well as the entities involved in the transactions, are reported here for the first time.
Myanmar’s military junta was involved in the ruse. Days before Reef arrived, Myanmar’s foreign exchange regulator told the client of Dynamic Wave that it would issue import documentation that labelled the delivery as diesel “instead of jet fuel,” according to a copy of the agency’s November 30 letter seen by Reuters.
The lengths taken to disguise the trade suggest US sanctions are biting. But Iranian jet fuel has continued to flow, earning Tehran valuable foreign currency and providing Myanmar with the means to conduct both commercial aviation and air raids.
The US treasury did not respond to questions about jet-fuel shipments between Iran and Myanmar.
Tawan was identified by UN experts in a 2024 report as a jet-fuel supplier to Myanmar’s military. The firm has not commented on those allegations.
Like Reef’s December shipment, Noble’s cargo was loaded at Iran’s Bandar Abbas according to SynMax’s analysis of satellite imagery.
Shipments of jet fuel between Iran and Myanmar have continued this year, Reuters reported in October, citing SynMax analysis and satellite imagery.