Two Indian companies and an Indian citizen living in the United Arab Emirates have been sanctioned by the United States for their involvement in the transportation of Iranian oil as part of Iran’s “shadow fleet”. The US Department of the Treasury stated in a statement on Thursday that Jugwinder Singh Brar is the owner of many shipping businesses with a fleet of about 30 ships, many of which are part of Iran’s “shadow fleet”.

Along with his companies in the UAE, Brar also owns or controls the petrochemical sales firm B and P Solutions Private Limited and the shipping company Global Tankers Private Limited, both of which are headquartered in India. Brar, two businesses headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, and two entities based in India were recognised by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as owners and operators of Brar’s boats that have carried Iranian oil on behalf of the Iranian military and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

Jugwinder Singh Brar is who?

According to the agency, Brar’s ships are involved in high-risk ship-to-ship (STS) transfers of Iranian petroleum in the Gulf of Oman, the UAE, Iran, and the waters off Iraq. These shipments then make their way to other intermediaries who mix the fuel or oil with goods from other nations and fabricate shipping documents to hide their ties to Iran, enabling the shipments to reach the global market.

The United States is committed to disrupting all aspects of Iran’s oil exports, especially those who aim to profit from this trade, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent stated. “The Iranian regime depends on its network of dishonest shippers and brokers like Brar and his companies to enable its oil sales and finance its destabilising activities,” Bessent said.

Captain of a ship

Brar is a ship captain and the owner and director of Prime Tankers LLC and Glory International FZ-LLC, both of which are domiciled in the United Arab Emirates. Brar owns, runs, or oversees a fleet of about 30 oil and petroleum product tankers via his firms. Most of them are Handysize tankers that only travel in coastal waters and only transport a small portion of the cargo of bigger tankers. Brar loads Iranian oil from other “shadow fleet” boats or illegal gasoline or oil from smaller commercial and fishing vessels onto these smaller vessels for STS transfers. Because so many transfers are needed to load a single tanker, these activities may sometimes take days to finish, the agency said.

Brar has done this by coordinating sanctions evasion strategies with the illegal shipping associates of Houthi financial official Sa’id al-Jamal. These strategies include using smaller vessels instead of large oil tankers to obfuscate Iranian oil smuggling in and around the Persian Gulf and Khor al Zubair, Iraq. Glory International managed and oversaw NADIYA, which smuggled Iranian oil for the Iranian military in 2023.

Brar’s smaller boats also aid in obfuscating the flow of Iranian cargo via STS transfers with sanctioned vessels, the CIA noted, often with the vessels’ Automatic Identification System (AIS) turned off or altered to make them seem to be somewhere else.

Numerous times, Brar’s ships have been seen pursuing high-risk STS patterns in the seas around the ports of Khor Al Zubair and Umm Qasr in Iraq, as well as close to Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and the Gulf of Oman.

At this stage, intermediaries mix Iranian gasoline or oil with goods from other nations and fabricate shipping paperwork to hide ties to Iran, enabling these goods to be transported by bigger tankers to the global market.

For his own financial gain, Bran trafficked Iranian petroleum.

Many of the ships in Brar’s fleet are owned or managed by Global Tankers. Because Iranian petroleum is available at reduced costs owing to the danger of sanctions associated with such shipments, Brar has probably also carried it for his own personal benefit. Numerous Brar boats that are suspected of transporting Iranian petroleum often stop at Indian oil and gas terminals, including important ports close to two of B and P Solutions Private Limited’s locations.

According to an executive order, OFAC is designating Brar to operate in the Iranian economy’s petroleum sector. The following companies are identified as being owned or controlled by Brar, either directly or indirectly: Prime Tankers, Glory International, Global Tankers, and B and P Solutions Private Limited.

Glory International-owned ships Global Beauty and Global Eagle were chosen to provide fuel oil bunkering services to boats in Iranian seas as part of many NIOC contracts totalling millions of euros that were inked throughout 2024. This is the fifth round of sanctions against Iranian oil sales since President Donald Trump issued the National Security Presidential Memorandum, which calls for a campaign of maximum pressure on Iran. The actions follow an Executive Order that targets Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical industries. All of the above-mentioned designated people’s property and interests in property that are in the US or under the ownership or control of US citizens are blocked as a consequence of today’s decision, and OFAC must be notified.

Additionally, any businesses that have at least 50% ownership by one or more blocked individuals, whether directly or indirectly, individually or collectively, are likewise banned. All transactions involving the property or interests in property of designated or otherwise banned people by US citizens or inside (or transiting) the US are typically prohibited under US sanctions. Both US citizens and foreign nationals may face civil or criminal consequences for violating US sanctions.