An Iranian oil tanker masquerading as hundreds of kilometers away while loading jet fuel has emerged as a key link in a covert supply chain fueling Myanmar’s escalating air war against civilians, a Reuters investigation has found. Satellite imagery, shipping documents, and vessel-tracking data show that Iranian tankers used electronic manipulation to disguise deliveries of jet fuel and other materials to Myanmar’s military, helping enable a sharp rise in deadly airstrikes during the country’s five-year civil war.
On September 15, 2025, the tanker Reef appeared to be near Iraq’s Basrah Oil Terminal, according to its Automatic Identification System signal. In reality, satellite images showed the vessel docked at Iran’s port of Bandar Abbas, loading jet fuel near a refinery overseen by Iran’s state oil infrastructure. Data analyzed by SynMax Intelligence and reviewed by Reuters revealed impossible jumps in Reef’s reported position, including movements of hundreds of kilometers in just minutes, a clear sign of location spoofing.
After loading fuel in Iran, Reef sailed through the Strait of Hormuz and briefly resumed accurate reporting before manipulating its signal again later in the voyage. On October 2, its transmitter falsely showed the tanker heading toward Bangladesh’s Chittagong port, while its true location placed it near Myanmar’s Myan Oil Terminal outside Yangon, roughly 800 kilometers away. Similar deceptive patterns continued throughout subsequent voyages.
These shipments coincided with a dramatic intensification of Myanmar’s air campaign. On October 13, 2025, a Myanmar junta warplane bombed the only school in the village of Vanha in western Chin state, killing two students and injuring 22 others. On the same day, Reef was returning to Iran after unloading more than 16,000 tons of jet fuel in Myanmar, enough to support thousands of fighter jet sorties. Residents of Vanha now sleep in nearby forests, fearing renewed airstrikes, according to accounts gathered by Reuters.
From October 2024 to December 2025, Iran delivered roughly 175,000 tons of jet fuel to Myanmar’s military in nine shipments using Reef and a larger sister ship, Noble, according to shipping records reviewed by Reuters and corroborated by satellite imagery. The two vessels became Myanmar’s primary jet fuel suppliers after Western sanctions and export controls drove most commercial fuel traders out of the country. During the same period, Myanmar’s military carried out more than 1,000 airstrikes on civilian targets, more than double the number recorded in the preceding 15 months, according to data compiled by Myanmar Peace Monitor, cited by Reuters.
The fuel deliveries were accompanied by large shipments of urea, a petrochemical product commonly used as fertilizer but also a key ingredient in explosives. Reuters found that Iran has sent hundreds of thousands of tons of urea to Myanmar since the coup in 2021, material that defected soldiers say is used in ordnance factories to manufacture bombs dropped from drones and aircraft. Together, the jet fuel and urea shipments have helped shift the balance of the conflict in favor of the junta, which faces rebel forces lacking air power.
Iran’s role has drawn condemnation from international officials. Responding to Reuters’ findings, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said the Iranian fuel shipments were “literally fueling mass atrocities,” pointing to an escalation in attacks on schools, hospitals, and other civilian infrastructure. Iran’s U.N. mission declined to comment, and Myanmar’s government did not respond to questions from Reuters.
The trade has also provided Iran with a crucial source of revenue as it grapples with tightening sanctions, economic strain, and internal unrest. Jet fuel commands a significant premium over crude oil, and Reuters estimates Iran could have earned more than $120 million from the nine confirmed shipments alone. Both Reef and Noble are part of Iran’s so-called shadow fleet, a network of tankers that routinely change names, flags, and tracking behavior to evade sanctions. The vessels and their owner were sanctioned by the United States in 2024 for knowingly transporting Iranian petrochemical products.
The consequences of the fuel trade have been felt acutely on the ground in Myanmar. In December 2025, days after another covert delivery by Reef, a junta airstrike destroyed a 300-bed hospital in the town of Mrauk-U, killing at least 30 people and injuring more than 70, according to Reuters reporting. Video verified by Reuters showed the scale of the destruction, with bodies and severed limbs scattered across the ruins.
Despite mounting evidence and international sanctions, the shipments have continued. As protests were crushed inside Iran in early 2026, Reuters reviewed data showing Noble once again spoofing its location near Iraq while actually waiting off the coast of Iran, preparing for another voyage. The tankers, and the supply chain they represent, remain in motion, even as civilian casualties in Myanmar continue to mount.
