Myanmar Used Mislabeled Paperwork to Hide Sanctioned Iranian Jet Fuel Imports, Documents Show

A tanker carrying about 113,000 barrels of fuel reached Myanmar waters in December 2025 with paperwork that did not match its cargo, according to documents and shipping data reviewed by Reuters. The vessel, called Reef and under US sanctions, was delivering jet fuel from Iran, not the diesel its contract described.

The shipment was ordered by Dynamic Wave, a Myanmar-based energy broker. It signed a $15.8 million contract with Thailand's Tawan-Oil Trading to receive a similar quantity of South African diesel. However, United Nations and Vortexa data show no such trade between South Africa and Myanmar in 2025. Satellite images and analysis by SynMax Intelligence tracked Reef from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas to Southeast Asia.

The disguise was needed because Washington imposed targeted sanctions on Myanmar's jet-fuel industry in 2023, citing the military's deadly bombing of civilian targets during its campaign against a rebel-led insurgency. Anyone buying Iranian oil and fuel also faces broad American sanctions.

Myanmar's authorities appear to have taken part. A November 30 letter from the country's foreign exchange regulator told the client of Dynamic Wave that it would issue import papers describing the delivery as diesel "instead of jet fuel." The letter, supplied to Reuters by the activist group Justice for Myanmar, gave no reason for the change. It also authorized Dynamic Wave and its client, National Energy Prime Aviation Services Company, to pay Tawan. The client is part-owned by Myanmar's military-backed government.

Justice for Myanmar, which backs further sanctions on the country's jet fuel imports, said it obtained the documents from a junta-run server that was briefly open to the public. Reuters found a dead link to one of the files in search engine results, suggesting it had been hosted there. Delivery dates and quantities in the documents also match Iranian shipment records the news agency reviewed separately.

The contract directed payment to Tawan's account at Siam Commercial Bank, Thailand's oldest bank. A 2024 UN experts' report named Tawan as a jet-fuel supplier to Myanmar's military and described the bank as a major facilitator of the military's procurement. The bank has said it follows anti-money-laundering laws and that its Myanmar-related transactions were legitimate and unconnected to the arms trade. Reuters could not establish whether the bank knew the nature of Tawan's business.

The December delivery was not the first of its kind. In May 2025, Dynamic Wave agreed to buy 202,000 barrels of supposed South African diesel from Tawan for $26 million. Jet-fuel expert Joshua Heyne of Washington State University and Platts data indicated the fuel density in the invoice matched jet fuel, not Southeast Asian diesel, and the price was over 50% above a global diesel benchmark. The tanker Noble delivered just under 200,000 barrels of jet fuel to Yangon on June 17, and SynMax said it was loaded at Bandar Abbas and broadcast signals suggesting it was bound for Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Myanmar's generals seized power in 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering a civil war. The United Nations said in August that the military has killed thousands, many of them civilians, in air attacks. Myanmar's foreign ministry responded that 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, and in October that shipments have continued this year. The lengths taken to hide the trade suggest sanctions are having an effect, yet the fuel keeps flowing, earning Tehran foreign currency and supporting both commercial flights and air raids in Myanmar. 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.