US Expands Sanctions on Iran’s Energy Trade Snaring Wide Array of Companies

The United States expanded its sanctions against Iran’s energy trade with coordinated actions by both the State Department and the Treasury. The efforts continue to increase the reach beyond Iranian operations to target the front companies and enablers of the energy trade, as well as tankers being used for the shipments.

The Trump administration highlights that it has sanctioned over 170 vessels responsible for shipping Iranian crude and petroleum products. In addition to going after international companies, it also expanded the sanctions to increase the actions against Iranian airline Mahan Air. It says the airline has been used to arm and supply Iran’s proxy groups.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said its focus was on a network of front companies and shipping facilitators that bankroll the Iranian armed forces by selling crude oil. It contends that Iran has increasingly come to rely on the sale of its crude oil to supplement its annual budget and finance the rebuilding of its “depleted forces” after the war with Israel and the U.S. bombing earlier this year.

OFAC listed six additional vessels, some of which it says have been chartered by the various front companies to deliver the oil or conduct ship-to-ship transfers. It included vessels registered in Palau, Gambia, and Panama, used both for crude shipments and petroleum products, including liquified petroleum gas (LPG). 

One vessel alone, Palau-registered Pioneer Sam (69,629 dwt), they allege has transported more than 30 shipments over the past two years, moving over 10 million barrels of Iranian fuel oil. They contend these tankers are moving crude and LPG to customers in East and South Asia, including Pakistan and Bangladesh.

At the center of the network, they said, is a company, Sepehr Energy Jahan, that is linked to the Armed Forces General Staff. Treasury associated the company to charterers and others in the UAE, a Panama-based shipping company, and others. Expanding the efforts, it also listed Germany-based trading company BPT Berlin Petroleum Trading, which is alleged to have arranged shipments via STS near Malaysia, and a Greek shipping company, Altomare, which it says chartered the Panama-flagged tanker Kallista to the front companies. They contend this vessel transported nearly four million barrels of oil on behalf of Sepehr Energy Jahan.

Concurrently, the State Department designated 17 entities, individuals, and vessels, which it said were all linked to the Iranian energy trade. It said that the previously listed Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, Iranian Oil Company, and National Iranian Tanker Company continue to rely on third-country service providers. State listed a maritime service provider in Singapore, ANBO Shipping also based in Singapore, and individuals in Singapore. It also designated a Marshall Islands-based shipping company and manager, and another company based in Vietnam, which manages two vessels. Another company is a commercial manager based in the UAE.

Among the vessels included by the State Department are two crude tankers flagged in Vietnam and a Comoros-flagged vessel.

The announcement of the sanctions came as Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Navy has used one of its destroyers deployed to the Caribbean to block the route of a sanctioned tanker bound for Venezuela. That tanker has been linked in the past to the Iranian trade and supplying Venezuela, as well as carrying products from Russia.

Since returning to the presidency in January 2025, Donald Trump has moved aggressively against the Iranian oil trade. The administration launched sanction packages against Iran in February and again in May.