YANGON — A Reuters investigation published on Monday detailed how purchases of Iranian jet fuel by Myanmar were disguised on paper as imports of South African diesel, using sham contracts and official import documents that mislabeled the cargo.
In December 2025, the U.S.-sanctioned tanker Reef arrived in Myanmar waters with some 113,000 barrels of fuel backed by sham paperwork, according to Reuters. Myanmar-based energy broker Dynamic Wave ordered the shipment under a sales contract with Thailand’s Tawan-Oil Trading that purported to cover a similar amount of South African diesel, a $15.8 million agreement Reuters viewed. There was no such trade between South Africa and Myanmar in 2025, according to data from the United Nations and Vortexa, a shipping and energy data provider.
In reality, Reef carried jet fuel from Iran, according to records of fuel shipments to Myanmar and satellite imagery and analysis by SynMax Intelligence, which tracked the tanker from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas to Southeast Asia.
Myanmar’s military junta was involved in the ruse, Reuters reported: days before Reef arrived, Myanmar’s foreign exchange regulator told Dynamic Wave’s client it would issue import documentation labeling the delivery as diesel “instead of jet fuel,” according to a copy of the agency’s November 30 letter seen by Reuters, which was provided by the activist group Justice for Myanmar. The document did not explain the purpose of the mislabeling.
The deception mattered because the United States in 2023 imposed targeted sanctions on Myanmar’s jet-fuel industry, citing the military’s bombing campaign against civilian targets, and because all purchasers of Iranian oil and fuel are also exposed to sweeping American sanctions.
Reuters reports the scheme from contracts, shipment records, satellite tracking and the regulator’s letter. The advocacy group Justice For Myanmar alleges six misclassified imports totaling more than 84,000 tonnes — an allegation reported separately from Reuters’ own documented case. Neither the junta nor the companies named had publicly answered the reporting as of Monday.
