Reuters alleges Myanmar disguised imports of Iranian jet fuel as diesel

According to Reuters, in December 2025, the tanker Reef, which was under U.S. sanctions, entered Myanmar's waters carrying approximately 113,000 barrels of fuel under apparently falsified documentation.

Myanmar-based energy intermediary Dynamic Wave had placed the order. Reuters reported that the company had agreed in a commercial contract with Thailand-based Tawan-Oil Trading to receive a comparable volume of South African diesel.

However, a $15.8 million contract reviewed by Reuters appeared to serve as a cover for a different transaction. Data from the United Nations and Vortexa, an energy and shipping intelligence provider, showed that no trade matching those specifications had taken place between South Africa and Myanmar in 2025.

In fact, shipping records for fuel imports into Myanmar, satellite imagery and an analysis by intelligence firm SynMax Intelligence indicated that the Reef had transported jet fuel from Iran to Myanmar. SynMax tracked the vessel's route from Bandar Abbas to Southeast Asia.

The need for secrecy stemmed in part from U.S. sanctions imposed on Myanmar's jet fuel industry in 2023. Washington targeted the sector in response to deadly military airstrikes against civilian targets and the junta's campaign to suppress armed resistance. Buyers of Iranian oil and fuel also face the risk of extensive U.S. sanctions.

The report provides new details about how Myanmar allegedly concealed its purchases of Iranian jet fuel and identifies entities involved in the transactions.

Myanmar's military authorities approved the change in cargo classification

Myanmar's military authorities also played a role in the arrangement. Several days before the Reef arrived, the country's foreign exchange regulator stated in a letter dated November 30, 2025, that import documents for the shipment would identify the cargo as “diesel” rather than “jet fuel.”

The regulator also authorized Dynamic Wave and its customer, National Energy Prime Aviation Services Company, to make payments to Tawan.

Part of the ownership of National Energy Prime Aviation Services is held by an entity linked to the military-backed government.

According to an earlier Reuters report published in January, Iran was Myanmar's primary supplier of jet fuel from October 2024 through December 2025. A substantial portion of the trade was conducted using the tankers Reef — later renamed Maris — and Noble.

The arrangement illustrates both the reach and the limitations of U.S. sanctions. Attempts to conceal the fuel's origin and classification suggest that sanctions have raised the cost and complexity of transactions, but Iranian jet fuel has continued to flow.

The trade provides Tehran with valuable foreign currency while allowing Myanmar to obtain fuel for commercial aviation and military airstrikes.

Jet fuel, airstrikes and civilian casualties

Myanmar's generals seized power in a 2021 coup, ousting the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The coup triggered a civil war during which the military has killed thousands of people, including large numbers of civilians, in airstrikes.

Myanmar's foreign ministry, responding to the allegations, said the military exercises “utmost restraint to avoid harm to civilians.”

Justice For Myanmar, an advocacy group that also provided Reuters with a copy of the fuel sales contract, published a report on Monday concluding that the junta had been importing jet fuel under the label of diesel.

The group, which advocates additional sanctions on Myanmar's jet fuel imports, said it obtained the documents from a server belonging to the military government that had been briefly accessible to the public.

While examining the records, Reuters found an inactive link to one of the documents through the DuckDuckGo search engine, indicating that the file had previously been hosted on the server.

The delivery dates and fuel volumes listed in the documents also matched records of Iranian jet fuel shipments that Reuters independently reviewed.

Links to a Thai bank

The fuel sales contract between Dynamic Wave and Tawan specified that payment should be made to Tawan's account at Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), Thailand's oldest commercial bank.

The Reuters report also identified SCB as one of the major facilitators of equipment and supplies for Myanmar's military.

Following publication of the report, the bank said it complied with anti-money-laundering regulations and that its transactions involving Myanmar were lawful and unrelated to the arms trade.

In 2024, Thai regulators had instructed banks to scrutinize Myanmar-related transactions more closely to ensure compliance with sanctions and anti-money-laundering rules.

Not the first shipment allegedly mislabeled as diesel

The December 2025 shipment was not the first instance in which jet fuel was allegedly imported into Myanmar under the label of diesel.

In May 2025, Dynamic Wave agreed to purchase 202,000 barrels of fuel from Tawan. A second contract, also obtained from the military government's server, described the shipment as South African diesel.

Under the agreement, the cargo was to arrive in Yangon, Myanmar's largest commercial city, within a month. Dynamic Wave was also required to transfer $26 million to Tawan's account at Siam Commercial Bank.

However, discrepancies in the invoice suggested that the shipment may actually have contained jet fuel.

In a report published in October, Reuters, citing SynMax's analysis and satellite imagery, alleged that transfers of Iranian jet fuel to Myanmar had continued during 2026.