The lengths taken by Myanmar to disguise its purchases of Iranian jet fuel suggest U.S. sanctions are biting. | ORE HUIYING / THE NEW YORK TIMES

In December 2025, the U.S.-sanctioned tanker Reef arrived in Myanmar waters with some 113,000 barrels of fuel backed by sham paperwork.

Myanmar-based energy broker Dynamic Wave ordered the shipment, agreeing in a sales contract inked with Thailand’s Tawan-Oil Trading to supposedly take delivery of a similar amount of South African diesel. But the $15.8 million agreement was a charade: 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 to Myanmar, according to records of fuel shipments to Myanmar, as well as satellite images and analysis by SynMax Intelligence, which tracked the tanker’s journey from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas to Southeast Asia.

In a time of both misinformation and too much…