113,000 Barrels: Myanmar’s Sanctioned Fuel Shipment Hides in Plain Sight

Myanmar’s fuel trade relied on a simple deception to keep sanctioned Iranian jet fuel flowing: mislabeling the cargo as diesel. A tanker named Reef arrived in December 2025 carrying roughly 113,000 barrels of fuel, but the accompanying paperwork described the load as diesel. The vessel is under US sanctions, and the fuel originated in Iran, a source also subject to broad American restrictions.

The trade was arranged by Dynamic Wave, a Myanmar-based energy broker, which signed a $15.8 million contract with Thailand’s Tawan-Oil Trading. The contract specified South African diesel, a commodity for which United Nations and Vortexa data show no corresponding trade between the two countries in 2025. Satellite tracking by SynMax Intelligence confirmed Reef’s route from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas to Southeast Asia.

The discrepancy in labeling was not accidental. A letter dated November 30 from Myanmar’s foreign exchange regulator instructed Dynamic Wave’s client to process import papers describing the delivery as diesel rather than jet fuel. The regulator gave no explanation for the change and authorized payment to Tawan. The client, National Energy Prime Aviation Services Company, is part-owned by Myanmar’s military-backed government.

The activist group Justice for Myanmar provided the letter to Reuters after accessing a junta-run server that was temporarily open to the public. A dead link in search engine results suggests the file was hosted on that server, and the delivery dates in the documents align with independent Iranian shipment records.

This was the second major shipment of its kind in 2025. In May, Dynamic Wave agreed to buy 202,000 barrels of alleged South African diesel for $26 million. Fuel density data and pricing analysis indicated the cargo was jet fuel, with a price more than 50% above global diesel benchmarks. The tanker Noble delivered nearly 200,000 barrels to Yangon in June, having loaded at Bandar Abbas.

The payments for these trades went to Tawan’s account at Siam Commercial Bank, Thailand’s oldest financial institution. A 2024 UN report identified Tawan as a key jet-fuel supplier to Myanmar’s military and the bank as a major procurement facilitator. The bank maintains that its transactions were legitimate and followed anti-money-laundering laws, though Reuters could not confirm whether the bank knew Tawan was trading jet fuel.

Myanmar’s military, which seized power in 2021, continues to rely on Iranian fuel to support both commercial aviation and air raids. The US imposed targeted sanctions on Myanmar’s jet-fuel industry in 2023, citing the military’s bombing of civilian targets. Despite the restrictions, the flow of fuel persists, providing Iran with foreign currency and enabling the junta’s aerial campaign. No parties involved, including the US Treasury and Iran’s foreign ministry, responded to requests for comment.