The Trump administration announced new sanctions aimed at Iran‘s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers that it said are used to fund destabilizing activities around the world.
The sanctions, imposed Monday by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and the State Department, are part of the administration’s recent maximum-pressure campaign on the nation to reduce Iran’s exports of crude oil to zero.
“Iran continues to rely on a shadowy network of vessels, shippers, and brokers to facilitate its oil sales and fund its destabilizing activities,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “The United States will use all our available tools to target all aspects of Iran’s oil supply chain, and anyone who deals in Iranian oil exposes themselves to significant sanctions risk.”
The administration is specifically placing sanctions on more than 30 people and vessels in Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, India, and China — all of which the administration said have played a role in helping sell and transport tens of millions of barrels of crude oil from Iran.
This includes Hong Kong-based oil broker Petronix Energy Trading Limited, which the Treasury Department said used two shadow tankers under Panama and Cook Island flags to transport hundreds of thousands of metric tons of Iranian crude.
The State Department also designated eight entities located in Iran, India, Malaysia, Seychelles, and the UAE for their involvement in purchasing and transporting Iranian crude through this “shadow fleet.”
These measures are meant to cut off these individuals and entities from the U.S. financial system, blocking all property and interests in the United States.
The sanctions build upon those imposed by the Biden administration in December of last year, as well as penalties set in January targeting a similar fleet of tankers used by Russia to illicitly transport oil.
These oil tankers — also commonly referred to as “dark fleets” — are known for using deceptive oil shipping practices and manipulating or disabling the universally used tracking system for ships, the Automatic Identification System. This is typically done to evade detection and conceal shipping paths amid Western sanctions.
While increased sanctions have continued to place pressure on these “shadow fleets,” some in the industry have warned that the existing measures aren’t enough to slow oil exports from nations such as Russia and Iran.
Earlier this month, the International Energy Agency estimated that while sanctions imposed on Russia’s energy sector by the previous administration complicated “shipping and maritime compliance” in the country, “new deceptive shipping practices to sustain these lucrative exports and collateral disruptions for global shipping could undermine these efforts.”
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As a result, Russia still saw revenues from oil exports increase in January.
The Trump administration is seeking to dramatically restrain Iran’s energy sector, bringing its export levels to as low as 100,000 barrels a day. Currently, the nation pushes out as much as 1.6 million barrels per day.