Myanmar Relabeled Iranian Jet Fuel as Diesel

Sanctions on Myanmar’s aviation sector forced local brokers to alter import records to mask the true origin of their fuel supplies.

A tanker named Reef arrived in Myanmar waters in December 2025 carrying approximately 113,000 barrels of jet fuel from Iran. The vessel’s contracts, however, listed the cargo as South African diesel. This discrepancy was revealed through shipping data and documents reviewed by Reuters. The tanker is under US sanctions, and the fuel itself is from a sanctioned source.

Dynamic Wave, a Myanmar-based energy broker, ordered the shipment. The company signed a contract worth $15.8 million with Thailand’s Tawan-Oil Trading for the diesel. Data from the United Nations and Vortexa showed no trade between South Africa and Myanmar in 2025 that matched this description. Satellite tracking by SynMax Intelligence followed Reef from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas to Southeast Asia.

Myanmar’s foreign exchange regulator actively participated in the relabeling. A letter dated November 30 stated the authority would issue import papers describing the delivery as diesel instead of jet fuel. The letter authorized Dynamic Wave and its client, National Energy Prime Aviation Services Company, to pay Tawan. National Energy Prime Aviation Services is partially owned by Myanmar’s military-backed government. The regulator provided no reason for the change in documentation.

The activist group Justice for Myanmar obtained the documents from a server run by the military government that was briefly accessible to the public. The group said it plans to push for further sanctions on jet fuel imports. Reuters found a dead link to one of the files in search engine results, which supports the claim that the documents were hosted on that server.

This was not the first time this method was used. In May 2025, Dynamic Wave agreed to buy 202,000 barrels of South African diesel from Tawan for $26 million. Fuel expert Joshua Heyne noted that the density in the invoice matched jet fuel rather than regional diesel. The price was more than 50% above global diesel benchmarks. The tanker Noble delivered just under 200,000 barrels of jet fuel to Yangon on June 17. SynMax reported it was loaded in Bandar Abbas and signaled it was heading to Chittagong, Bangladesh.

The payments for these transactions went to an account at Siam Commercial Bank in Thailand. A 2024 report by UN experts named Tawan as a supplier to the Myanmar military and identified the bank as a major facilitator of military procurement. The bank states its transactions were legitimate and unconnected to the arms trade. Dynamic Wave, its client, Tawan, the bank, and officials from Thailand, Myanmar, Iran, and the US Treasury did not respond to requests for comment.

The United States imposed targeted sanctions on Myanmar’s jet-fuel industry in 2023 following the military’s bombing of civilian targets. Iran became the military’s main jet-fuel supplier between October 2024 and December 2025. Reuters reported in October 2026 that shipments continued this year. The fuel supports both commercial flights and military air raids in the country.