FEATURE | Iranian jet fuel shipments to Myanmar circumvent sanctions on both countries

Reef and Noble docked at the Myan Oil Terminal, a facility on the outskirts of Yangon previously known as Puma, SynMax imagery showed. In an archived website, a former corporate owner said it handled 100 per cent of Myanmar’s market for jet fuel, which spoils easily and requires specialised storage and transport.

Western governments have designated the network of companies connected to the facility – including Myan Oil, Swan Energy, Shoon Energy and Asia Sun Group – as key partners of the junta in importing, storing and distributing jet fuel. Those firms and two associated individuals, Zaw Min Tun and Win Kyaw Kyaw Aung, were sanctioned for supplying the fuel to the military.

Neither Myan Oil nor the network of companies and people connected to the terminal responded to requests for comment. In many cases, email addresses for them that were listed in the sanctions notices were invalid.

At least two vessels that transport bulk cargoes, Golden ES and Rasha, delivered urea from Iran to Myanmar last year, port authority data and satellite imagery show. As with Reef and Noble, Golden ES and Rasha manipulated their onboard location transmitters to disguise their departure point, according to SynMax. The quantities of urea described by the analysts would entail multiple deliveries, but Reuters was unable to confirm other shipments.

The owners of Golden ES and Rasha did not respond to requests for comment.

In late January, as the Iranian protests were crushed, SynMax data showed Noble again pretending to be anchored off the southern tip of Iraq. In reality, the ship was loitering near the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, waiting to set sail. Reef was loaded and on its way back toward Yangon.

(Reporting by Gavin Finch in London, Devjyot Ghoshal in Bangkok, and the Myanmar bureau. Additional reporting by Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok, James Pearson and Jonathan Saul in London, and Ruma Paul in Dhaka. Video verification by Marine Delrue. Edited by Lori Hinnant.)