US sanctions Indian national, 2 India-based entities for transporting Iranian petroleum

New York/Washington: The US has sanctioned a United Arab Emirates-based Indian national and two India-based entities operating as part of Iran’s “shadow fleet” and involved in shipping Iranian oil.

Jugwinder Singh Brar owns multiple shipping companies that boast a fleet of nearly 30 vessels, many of which operate as part of Iran’s “shadow fleet”, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement on Thursday.

In addition to his UAE-based businesses, Brar owns or controls India-based shipping company Global Tankers Private Limited and petrochemical sales company B and P Solutions Private Limited.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Brar, two UAE and two India-based entities that own and operate Brar’s vessels that have transported Iranian oil on behalf of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and the Iranian military.

Brar’s vessels engage in high-risk ship-to-ship (STS) transfers of Iranian petroleum in waters off Iraq, Iran, the UAE, and the Gulf of Oman, the agency said adding that these cargoes then reach other facilitators who blend the oil or fuel with products from other countries and falsify shipping documents to conceal links to Iran, allowing these cargoes to reach the international market.

“The Iranian regime relies on its network of unscrupulous shippers and brokers like Brar and his companies to enable its oil sales and finance its destabilizing activities,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said, adding that the US remains focused on disrupting all elements of Iran’s oil exports, particularly those who seek to profit from this trade.

Brar is a ship captain and owner and director of UAE-based companies Prime Tankers LLC and Glory International FZ-LLC. Through his companies, Brar owns, operates, or manages a fleet of nearly 30 oil and petroleum product tankers, the majority of which are Handysize tankers that stick to coastal waters and carry a fraction of the cargo of larger tankers.

Brar uses these smaller vessels for STS transfers to load Iranian oil from other “shadow fleet” vessels or to load oil or fuel that is smuggled from smaller commercial and fishing vessels. These operations can sometimes take days to complete due to the numerous transfers required to fill a single tanker, the agency said.

In this fashion, Brar has coordinated with Houthi financial official Sa’id al-Jamal’s illicit shipping associates on sanctions evasion tactics, specifically the use of smaller vessels in lieu of large oil tankers to obfuscate Iranian oil smuggling in and around the Persian Gulf and Khor al Zubair, Iraq. In 2023, the Glory International-operated and managed NADIYA smuggled Iranian oil on behalf of the Iranian military.

The agency added that Brar’s smaller vessels also help obfuscate the movement of Iranian cargoes through STS transfers with sanctioned vessels, often while their Automatic Identification System (AIS) is disabled or manipulated to make the vessels falsely appear to be elsewhere.

Brar’s vessels have been observed following high-risk STS patterns on numerous occasions in the waters off Iraq’s Khor Al Zubair and Umm Qasr ports, and near Iran, the UAE, and the Gulf of Oman.

At this point, facilitators blend the Iranian oil or fuel with products from other countries and falsify shipping documents to conceal links to Iran, allowing these cargoes to reach the international market via larger tankers.

Global Tankers is the owner or manager of a number of vessels in Brar’s fleet. Brar has likely also transported Iranian petroleum for his own personal profit because of its availability at lower prices due to the sanctions risk such cargoes carry.

Many of Brar’s vessels that are known to have carried Iranian petroleum make frequent port calls at oil and gas terminals in India, including major ports located near two of B and P Solutions Private Limited’s branches.

OFAC is designating Brar pursuant to an executive order for operating in the petroleum sector of the Iranian economy. Prime Tankers, Glory International, Global Tankers, and B and P Solutions Private Limited are being designated for being owned or controlled by, directly or indirectly, Brar.

In multiple NIOC contracts signed throughout 2024 worth millions of dollars, Glory International-owned vessels Global Beauty and Global Eagle were selected to provide fuel oil bunkering services to vessels in Iranian waters.

The actions have been taken following an Executive Order which targets Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical sectors, and marks the fifth round of sanctions targeting Iranian oil sales since President Donald Trump issued the National Security Presidential Memorandum, ordering a campaign of maximum pressure on Iran.

As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC.

In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 per cent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.

US sanctions generally prohibit all transactions by US persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons. Violations of US sanctions may result in the imposition of civil or criminal penalties on US and foreign persons.