U.S. Launches Eighth Round of Sanctions Targeting Iran's Oil and Tankers
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) launched its next round of sanctions targeting Iran through six entities involved in an extensive smuggling network, as well as four tankers that the U.S. contends collectively have transported and purchased billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil. It marks the eighth round of sanctions targeting Iran’s oil trade since Donald Trump issued an executive order directing a campaign of maximum pressure on Iran.
The U.S., in its latest effort, is targeting a network of companies run by Iraqi businessman Salim Ahmed Said, which Treasury contends has profited from smuggling Iranian oil disguised as, or blended with, Iraqi oil. The announcement maps out a far-reaching network of companies involved in an elaborate schedule to evade sanctions on the oil trade.
Iraqi-British national Salim Ahmed Said runs the companies that the U.S. says have been selling Iranian oil falsely declared as Iraqi oil since at least 2020. The announcement maps out the use of ship-to-ship transfers and other obfuscation techniques to hide their activities and efforts to blend Iranian oil with Iraqi oil, which is then sold to Western buyers via Iraq or the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as purely Iraqi oil using forged documentation to avoid sanctions.
The U.S. reports Said has bribed many members of key Iraqi government bodies, including parliament. It reports that he has paid millions of dollars in kickbacks to these officials in exchange for forged vouchers allowing him to sell Iranian oil as if it originated from Iraq.
Said controls UAE-based company VS Tankers, formerly known as Al-Iraqia Shipping Services & Oil Trading (AISSOT), which the U.S. says has smuggled oil for the benefit of the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). VS Tankers-affiliated ships have assisted Iranian oil exporters in blending Iranian oil with Iraqi oil to obscure the oil’s origins by engaging in ship-to-ship transfers with vessels known to be affiliated with Iranian oil activities. VS Tankers currently claims several oil tankers as part of its fleet, one of which recorded four ship-to-ship transfers with the U.S.-sanctioned, Barbados-flagged Casinova in April 2024 while located in the Persian Gulf. VS Tankers has also served as the operator, manager, and beneficial owner of the Marshall Islands-flagged crude oil tanker Dijilah since 2019.
Said expanded his business holdings in 2023 to include VS Oil Terminal, which the U.S. says manages six oil storage tanks where Iranian oil is dropped off to be mixed with Iraqi oil. Vessels carrying Iranian oil also conduct ship-to-ship transfers with vessels carrying Iraqi oil in the vicinity of VS Oil’s terminal facilities, and the blended oil is ultimately authenticated by complicit Iraqi government officials. Vessel tracking data shows that multiple oil tankers known to transport Iranian petroleum products on behalf of U.S.-sanctioned Iranian oil and petrochemical broker Triliance Petrochemical Co. Ltd. and Iranian military front company Sahara Thunder have visited VS Oil. Said also owns UAE-based VS Petroleum DMCC, and Rhine Shipping DMCC, which, in 2022, were implicated in blending Iranian oil to sell as Iraqi oil, as well as the United Kingdom-based companies The Willett Hotel Limited and Robinbest Limited.
In addition to Said’s network, the U.S. is Singapore-based Trans Arctic Global Marine Services, which it says has worked with the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) to facilitate shipments of Iranian oil through the Strait of Malacca for eventual ship-to-ship transfers to vessels waiting in the Singapore Eastern Outer Port Limits.
The effort also adds four more tankers, Cameroon-flagged Vizuri, Comoros-flagged Fotis, and Panama-flagged Themis and Bianca Joysel, to the sanctions for having collectively shipped tens of millions of barrels of Iranian oil and other petroleum worth billions of dollars. The U.K. had previously sanctioned Themis in May 2025 for transporting Russian oil.
Seychelles-based Egir Shipping, Marshall Islands-based Fotis Lines and Themis Limited, and British Virgin Islands-based Betensh Global Investment and Dong Dong Shipping, are all being listed as the owners and operators of these vessels.
The latest round also includes the Al-Qatirji Company, which is being linked to the Cameroon-flagged Elizabet, which the U.S. reports has impersonated a separate vessel, the S Tinos, and the Cameroon-flagged Atila, which has received oil in a ship-to-ship transfer with the sanctioned vessel Arman 114. The Al-Qatirji Company has also used the Palau-flagged Gas Maryam to transport Iranian petroleum products.
This sweeping effort comes as the U.S. is trying to pressure Iran into a permanent peace agreement and to abandon its future nuclear efforts. However, last week, Trump said China could continue purchasing U.S.-sanctioned Iranian oil. The statement was later clarified to say that the White House wants China to abandon Iranian oil and buy instead from the United States.