US Sanctions Nine Indian Firms For Trading Iranian Oil and Oil Products

New Delhi: Nine Indian firms and eight Indian nationals are among those to be placed under US sanctions for trading Iranian oil, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and petroleum products, in what was Donald Trump administration’s latest move to tighten the noose around Iran’s revenues. The new sanctions on Indian companies and citizens have not elicited a response from New Delhi as yet. 

On October 9, the US Department of State imposed sanctions on nearly 40 persons, entities and vessels for trading Iranian products, while the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets (OFAC) put 60 similar entities under the scanner for facilitating the shipment of of oil and LPG from Iran to end users across the world. Firms and individuals who faced such sanctions are from various countries, including China and the United Arab Emirates. 

The eight Indian petrochemical companies to face sanctions include Mumbai-based firms CJ Shah & Co, Chemovick, Mody Chem, Paarichem Resources, Indisol Marketing, Haresh Petrochem, and Shiv Texchem, and Delhi-based BK Sales Corporation, which according to the State Department have traded hundred of millions of dollars of Iranian energy products over the past couple of years. 

The US State department said that these firms had been “in direct violation of existing US sanctions on Iran’s energy sector”. 

Apart from these companies, five Indian executives – Piyush Maganlal Javiya of Chemovick, Niti Unmesh Bhatt of Indisol Marketing, and Kamla, Kunal, and Poonam Kasat of Haresh Petrochem – were also sanctioned for facilitating the “banned” trade. Three other Indians – Varun Pula, Iyappan Raja, and Soniya Shrestha – were pointed out by the OFAC for links to vessels which were shipping Iranian LPG. 

Shrestha, the owner of Mumbai-based Vega Star Ship Management, was alleged to have connections with a Comoros-flagged ship called Nepta that allegedly carried Iranian LPG to Pakistan, while Pula and Raja were alleged to have overseen companies that managed tankers which transported “millions of barrels of Iranian LPG to China since January 2025.”

Pula owns Marshall Islands-based Bertha Shipping and also manages Comoros-flagged vessel Pamir that has transported nearly four million barrels of Iran’s LPG to China, the OFAC said. Raja, on the other hand, owns Marshall Islands-based Evie Lines that owns the Panama-flagged vessel Sapphire Gas. The OFAC said that this ship has transported over a million barrels of Iranian LPG to China since April, 2025. The vessels, too, have also been blocked by the US.

“As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated or blocked 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,” OFAC said in its statement.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “The Treasury Department is degrading Iran’s cash flow by dismantling key elements of Iran’s energy export machine. Under President Trump, this administration is disrupting the regime’s ability to fund terrorist groups that threaten the United States.”

The OFAC said that this action targets a network of nearly two dozen vessels, a China-based crude oil terminal, a Chinese refinery, all of which were “key to Iran’s ability to export petroleum and petroleum products to generate significant revenue”.

“The Iranian regime continues to fuel conflict in the Middle East and fund its destabilizing activities. This behavior enables Iran’s ability to fund its nuclear program, support terrorist groups, and disrupt trade and freedom of navigation in waterways crucial to global prosperity and economic growth. The United States will continue to take action against the network of terminal operators, port agents, shippers, brokers, and service providers involved in the trade of Iranian crude oil, petroleum products, and petrochemical products,” the US state department said.

“Iran’s petrochemical industry and exports are a critical sector of the Iranian economy that has grown in recent years to generate billions of dollars in illicit funds for Iran’s destabilising activities. Like the regime’s illicit oil exports, Iranian petrochemical products are frequently transshipped through intermediaries in third countries to obfuscate their origin. Today’s action targets those intermediaries, as well as the buyers of Iranian petrochemical products,” it added, while elaborating on the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure campaign” on Iran. 

Indian nationals and firms had faced sanctions in similar targeting during earlier rounds of imposing sanctions as part of the campaign. of the campaign. “For instance, eight India-based companies and five Indian nationals were sanctioned by the US late July as part of Washington’s action against entities engaged in trade of Iranian oil, petroleum products, and petrochemicals, and those identified as part of a shipping empire controlled by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani—the son of Ali Shamkhani, a top political advisor to the Supreme Leader of Iran.,” the Indian Express reported. 

The daily reported that the India-based Gabbaro Ship Services was sanctioned for alleged involvement in transportation of Iranian oil in October last year, while in August and September, 2024, three India-registered shipping firms were placed under sanctions by the US over their alleged participation in transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project that has been under US sanctions. 

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