It was December 2025. The US-sanctioned tanker Reef reached Myanmar’s waters carrying about 113,000 barrels of fuel. On paper the cargo was South African diesel, but the ship was in fact carrying jet fuel from Iran.
Myanmar-based fuel trading company Dynamic Wave had signed a sales contract with Thailand’s Tawan Oil Trading. The $15.8 million contract stated that the same quantity of diesel would be supplied from South Africa.
According to data from the United Nations and energy data provider Vortexa, however, there was no such fuel trade from South Africa to Myanmar in 2025.
The details come from contracts seen by Reuters, records of fuel deliveries in Myanmar, satellite images and data from ship-tracking analytics firm Synmax Intelligence, which followed the tanker’s voyage from Iran’s Bandar Abbas to Southeast Asia.
The disguise was used to get around US sanctions on jet fuel imports to Myanmar. Washington imposed sanctions on the jet fuel sector in 2023 after deadly air strikes by the country’s military on civilian targets. Parties involved in buying and selling Iranian oil and fuel also face sweeping US sanctions.
The Reuters investigation sets out for the first time how purchases of Iranian jet fuel were concealed and which companies were involved.
Junta regulator allowed the fuel type to be changed
A few days before the shipment reached Myanmar, the country’s foreign exchange regulator told Dynamic Wave’s customer that diesel would be stated instead of jet fuel in the import documents. Reuters has seen a copy of the letter, dated November 30.
The activist group Justice For Myanmar provided the document to Reuters. The letter did not explain why the real type of fuel was being concealed and shown as diesel.
The letter also allowed Dynamic Wave and its customer, National Energy Prime Aviation Services Company, to pay Tawan for the shipment.
Another Reuters report, published in January, said Iran was the main supplier of jet fuel to Myanmar’s military from October 2024 to December 2025. Much of this trade was carried out by two tankers: Reef, since renamed Maris, and Noble.
The scheme uncovered by Reuters shows both the power and the limits of Washington’s sanctions. The steps taken by those involved to hide the fuel trade show that the sanctions are putting on pressure.
Even so, Iranian jet fuel is reaching Myanmar. This gives Tehran important foreign currency and lets Myanmar obtain fuel for commercial flights and air strikes.
The US Treasury did not respond to questions about jet fuel supplies from Iran to Myanmar. Dynamic Wave’s fuel purchase contract said payment was to be made to Tawan’s account at Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) in Thailand, the country’s oldest bank.
A 2024 report by UN experts identified Tawan as a supplier of jet fuel to Myanmar’s military. The company has not commented on the allegation.
The same report also named SCB as an important facilitator in procuring equipment and other military supplies for Myanmar’s military.
After the report was published, the bank said it complies with anti-money laundering laws and that its Myanmar-related transactions are legal and unrelated to the arms trade.
Reuters could not establish whether SCB was aware of the nature of Tawan’s business. The bank did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Not the first shipment
The December shipment was not the first time jet fuel had reached Myanmar disguised as diesel.
In May 2025, Dynamic Wave signed a contract to buy 202,000 barrels of South African diesel from Tawan. A second contract, obtained from a junta-controlled server, said the fuel had to reach Yangon within a month. For this, Dynamic Wave was to pay $26 million into Tawan’s SCB account.
But several inconsistencies were found in the shipping invoices for that contract, suggesting the fuel was in fact jet fuel.
According to analysis by Joshua Heyne, a jet fuel expert at Washington State University, and data from energy information provider Platts, the fuel density stated in the documents matches jet fuel rather than the diesel sold in Southeast Asia.
The fuel was also priced more than 50 per cent above an international benchmark price for diesel. According to fuel delivery records, the tanker Noble reached the port of Yangon on June 17, carrying about 200,000 barrels of jet fuel destined for Dynamic Wave.
According to Synmax’s analysis of satellite images, Noble, like Reef, loaded its fuel at Iran’s Bandar Abbas. On its way to Myanmar’s commercial capital, the ship sent location signals that made its destination appear to be Bangladesh’s Chittagong port.
The company that manages the Reef and Noble tankers did not respond to a request for comment sent through its listed website.
Jet fuel shipments from Iran to Myanmar have continued this year, Reuters reported last October, based on Synmax analysis and satellite images.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report