Myanmar military-linked firms hid Iranian jet fuel as diesel to bypass US sanctions
Documents reveal a $15.8 million shipment was mislabeled to avoid penalties imposed on the country's aviation fuel industry.
By Amelia Foster ·
Myanmar’s energy sector used mislabeled paperwork to import roughly 113,000 barrels of Iranian jet fuel in December 2025, according to shipping data and documents reviewed by Reuters. The cargo arrived on the tanker Reef, a vessel already under US sanctions, despite a contract that listed the delivery as South African diesel.
The arrangement was orchestrated by Dynamic Wave, a Myanmar-based broker, which signed the $15.8 million deal with Thailand’s Tawan-Oil Trading. While the contract specified diesel, satellite tracking by SynMax Intelligence placed the Reef at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas before it crossed Southeast Asia. Vortexa and United Nations data confirmed no corresponding diesel trade occurred between South Africa and Myanmar that year.
The deception was necessary because Washington targeted Myanmar’s jet-fuel industry with sanctions in 2023. The measures followed the military’s bombing of civilian targets during its war against rebel forces. Buying Iranian fuel also triggers broad American penalties, making the fuel a high-risk commodity for importers.
Evidence suggests government involvement in the cover-up. A letter dated November 30 from Myanmar’s foreign exchange regulator instructed that import documents describe the cargo as diesel “instead of jet fuel.” The document, provided to Reuters by the activist group Justice for Myanmar, authorized payments to Tawan without explaining the discrepancy. The client, National Energy Prime Aviation Services Company, is partly owned by the military-backed government.
This was not the first instance of such trading. In May 2025, Dynamic Wave agreed to buy 202,000 barrels of supposed South African diesel for $26 million. Fuel density data indicated the product was jet fuel, and the price exceeded global diesel benchmarks by more than 50%. The tanker Noble delivered nearly 200,000 barrels to Yangon on June 17, having loaded at Bandar Abbas.
Tawan’s transactions were routed through Siam Commercial Bank, which a 2024 UN report identified as a major facilitator of military procurement. The bank has stated its Myanmar-related deals were legitimate and followed anti-money-laundering laws. Reuters could not determine if the bank knew the true nature of Tawan’s business.
The next scheduled step involves ongoing scrutiny of these financial flows. Dynamic Wave, Tawan, and the relevant government bodies in Thailand and Myanmar did not respond to requests for comment. The US Treasury and Iran’s foreign ministry also declined to answer inquiries.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
