Myanmar Regulators Rewrote Diesel Contracts to Import Sanctioned Iranian Jet Fuel
Documents reveal a $15.8 million deal where Myanmar officials authorized paperwork to label 113,000 barrels of Iranian jet fuel as South African diesel.
By Rafael Collins ·
Myanmar's foreign exchange regulator instructed importers to classify a shipment of Iranian jet fuel as diesel, a move that allowed the country to receive roughly 113,000 barrels of sanctioned cargo in December 2025. The discrepancy between the physical fuel and the contractual description highlights the steps taken to circumvent U.S. restrictions on Myanmar's military and energy sectors.
The shipment arrived on the tanker Reef, a vessel under U.S. sanctions. Dynamic Wave, a Myanmar-based broker, had signed a $15.8 million agreement with Thailand's Tawan-Oil Trading for South African diesel. However, United Nations records and Vortexa data showed no corresponding trade between South Africa and Myanmar during that period. Satellite tracking by SynMax Intelligence confirmed the Reef departed from Iran's Bandar Abbas port.
A letter dated November 30, 2025, from Myanmar's foreign exchange regulator explicitly told the client of Dynamic Wave that import papers would describe the delivery as diesel instead of jet fuel. The document authorized payments to Tawan and was provided to Reuters by the activist group Justice for Myanmar. Justice for Myanmar stated the files were obtained from a junta-run server that had been temporarily accessible to the public.
The client receiving the fuel is National Energy Prime Aviation Services Company, a firm partly owned by Myanmar's military-backed government. Payments for the fuel were directed to Tawan's account at Siam Commercial Bank, Thailand's oldest institution. A 2024 report by U.N. experts identified Siam Commercial Bank as a key facilitator of the military's procurement, though the bank maintains its Myanmar transactions were legitimate.
This was not an isolated incident. In May 2025, Dynamic Wave agreed to purchase 202,000 barrels of alleged South African diesel from Tawan for $26 million. Joshua Heyne, a jet-fuel expert at Washington State University, noted that the fuel density and price premium of over 50% above global benchmarks matched jet fuel profiles. The tanker Noble delivered that cargo to Yangon on June 17, 2025, after loading at Bandar Abbas.
U.S. authorities imposed targeted sanctions on Myanmar's jet-fuel industry in 2023 following the military's bombing of civilian targets. The continued flow of Iranian fuel provides Tehran with foreign currency while supporting both commercial aviation and military air raids. Neither Dynamic Wave, Tawan, Siam Commercial Bank, nor the governments of Myanmar and Iran responded to requests for comment.
