Myanmar Importers Paid $15.8 Million for Iranian Jet Fuel Disguised as Diesel

Myanmar’s foreign exchange regulator issued paperwork in late 2025 that explicitly relabeled incoming Iranian jet fuel as diesel, according to documents reviewed by reporters. The letter, dated November 30, instructed the client of energy broker Dynamic Wave that import documents would describe the cargo as diesel instead of jet fuel. This move allowed a sanctioned vessel to deliver approximately 113,000 barrels of fuel to Myanmar waters in December 2025 without immediately triggering alerts based on the declared cargo type.

The shipment was ordered by Dynamic Wave, a Myanmar-based broker that signed a $15.8 million contract with Thailand’s Tawan-Oil Trading. The contract stated the company would receive South African diesel. However, data from United Nations experts and the trade platform Vortexa showed no record of such a trade between South Africa and Myanmar in 2025. Satellite imagery and analysis by SynMax Intelligence tracked the vessel, named Reef, from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas to Southeast Asia. The vessel is under US sanctions.

The relabeling was necessary to avoid penalties. Washington imposed targeted sanctions on Myanmar’s jet-fuel industry in 2023 after the military bombed civilian targets during its fight against a rebel insurgency. Broader American sanctions also apply to anyone purchasing Iranian oil and fuel. By declaring the cargo as diesel, the importer aimed to obscure the origin and nature of the fuel.

Myanmar’s National Energy Prime Aviation Services Company, which is partially owned by the military-backed government, served as the client for the transaction. The regulator’s letter authorized Dynamic Wave and the National Energy company to pay Tawan for the delivery. The activist group Justice for Myanmar, which supports further sanctions on the country’s fuel imports, provided the documents to reporters. The group said it obtained the files from a junta-run server that was briefly accessible to the public. A dead link found in search engine results suggests the files were hosted on that server.

Payment for the shipment was directed to Tawan’s account at Siam Commercial Bank, Thailand’s oldest financial institution. A 2024 report by UN experts identified Tawan as a jet-fuel supplier to Myanmar’s military. The same report described Siam Commercial Bank as a major facilitator of military procurement. The bank stated that it follows anti-money-laundering laws and that its Myanmar-related transactions were legitimate. Reporters could not determine if the bank knew the specific nature of Tawan’s business.

This December delivery was part of a larger pattern. In May 2025, Dynamic Wave agreed to buy 202,000 barrels of supposed South African diesel from Tawan for $26 million. Joshua Heyne, a jet-fuel expert at Washington State University, analyzed the invoice and found the fuel density matched jet fuel rather than Southeast Asian diesel. The price was also more than 50% above the global diesel benchmark. The tanker Noble delivered just under 200,000 barrels to Yangon on June 17. SynMax data indicated the vessel loaded at Bandar Abbas and broadcast signals suggesting a destination of Chittagong, Bangladesh.

The military seized power in 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, starting a civil war. The United Nations reported in August that the military has killed thousands of people, many of them civilians, in air attacks. Myanmar’s foreign ministry said the military exercises maximum restraint to avoid civilian harm. Reuters reported in January that Iran was the military’s main jet-fuel supplier between October 2024 and December 2025. The agency reported in October that shipments have continued this year. Dynamic Wave, its client, Tawan, the bank, Thai and Myanmar authorities, Iran’s foreign ministry, and the US Treasury did not respond to requests for comment.