US designates Indian captain and companies for aiding Iranian oil smuggling

The United States has sanctioned two India-based companies and an Indian national involved in shipping Iranian oil and being part of Iran's "shadow fleet." Several shipping businesses owned by Jugwinder Singh Brar have a fleet of around 30 ships, several of which are part of Iran's "shadow fleet," the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement on Thursday.

Brar also owns or controls the petrochemical sales company B and P Solutions Private Limited and the shipping company Global Tankers Private Limited, both based in India, in addition to his companies in the UAE. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department designated Brar, two entities based in the United Arab Emirates, and two entities based in India as the owners and operators of Brar's vessels that have carried Iranian oil on behalf of the Iranian military and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

According to the agency, Brar's ships transport Iranian petroleum through high-risk ship-to-ship (STS) transactions in the Gulf of Oman, the UAE, Iran, and the waters off Iraq. These shipments are then transferred to other middlemen who mix the fuel or oil with goods from other nations and fabricate shipping documents to hide their ties to Iran, thereby 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.

Brar is a ship captain and the owner and director of Prime Tankers LLC and Glory International FZ-LLC, both based in the United Arab Emirates. He owns, operates, or oversees a fleet of almost 30 oil and petroleum product tankers through his firms. Most of these are Handysize tankers that travel only in coastal waters and carry a small portion of the cargo of larger tankers.

Brar loads Iranian oil from other "shadow fleet" vessels or illegal fuel or oil from smaller commercial and fishing vessels onto these smaller vessels for STS transfers. These operations can sometimes take days to complete due to the numerous transfers required to load a single tanker, the agency added.

In this way, Brar has collaborated with the illegal shipping partners of Houthi financial official Sa’id al-Jamal on strategies for evading sanctions—particularly the use of smaller ships rather than large oil tankers to smuggle Iranian oil in and around the Persian Gulf and Khor al Zubair, Iraq. NADIYA, which is operated and administered by Glory International, trafficked Iranian oil in 2023 on behalf of the Iranian military.

Brar's smaller vessels also help conceal the movement of Iranian commodities through STS transfers with sanctioned vessels, the agency noted, frequently with the vessels' Automatic Identification System (AIS) turned off or altered to make them appear to be elsewhere.

In the waters off the ports of Khor Al Zubair and Umm Qasr in Iraq, as well as near Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and the Gulf of Oman, Brar's ships have often been observed engaging in high-risk STS patterns. To hide ties to Iran, facilitators merge Iranian fuel or oil with goods from other countries and fabricate shipping documents, enabling these goods to be transported by larger tankers to the global market.

Many of the ships in Brar's fleet are owned or managed by Global Tankers. Given the risk of sanctions associated with such shipments, Brar has likely also transported Iranian petroleum for his own benefit, as it is available at lower costs. Numerous Brar vessels suspected of transporting Iranian petroleum frequently dock at Indian oil and gas facilities, including major ports near two of B and P Solutions Private Limited’s locations.

According to an executive order, OFAC is designating Brar for operating 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 supply fuel oil bunkering services to vessels in Iranian waters as part of several NIOC contracts totalling millions of dollars that were signed throughout 2024.

These measures mark the fifth round of sanctions against Iranian oil sales since President Donald Trump issued the National Security Presidential Memorandum, which called for a campaign of maximum pressure on Iran. The executive order targets Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical industries.

The designated persons’ property and interests in property that are in the United States or under the possession or control of US persons are blocked as a result of this decision, and OFAC must be notified. Additionally, entities that are at least 50% owned by one or more blocked individuals—directly or indirectly, individually or collectively—are also blocked.

Any transactions involving the property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked individuals by US persons, or within the United States, are generally prohibited under US sanctions. US and international individuals may face civil or criminal penalties for violating these sanctions.