US sanctions Indian national, 2 India-based entities for transporting Iranian petroleum
The US has sanctioned a United Arab Emirates-based Indian national and two India-based entities operating as part of Iran’s “shadow fleet” and involved in shipping Iranian oil. Jugwinder Singh Brar owns multiple shipping companies that boast a fleet of nearly 30 vessels, many of which operate as part of Iran’s “shadow fleet”, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement on Thursday. In addition to his UAE-based businesses, Brar owns or controls India-based shipping company Global Tankers Private Limited and petrochemical sales company B and P Solutions Private Limited. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Brar, two UAE and two India-based entities that own and operate Brar’s vessels that have transported Iranian oil on behalf of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and the Iranian military. Brar’s vessels engage in high-risk ship-to-ship (STS) transfers of Iranian petroleum in waters off Iraq, Iran, the UAE, and the Gulf of Oman, the agency said adding that these cargoes then reach other facilitators who blend the oil or fuel with products from other countries and falsify shipping documents to conceal links to Iran, allowing these cargoes to reach the international market. “The Iranian regime relies on its network of unscrupulous shippers and brokers like Brar and his companies to enable its oil sales and finance its destabilizing activities,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said, adding that the US remains focused on disrupting all elements of Iran’s oil exports, particularly those who seek to profit from this trade. Brar is a ship captain and owner and director of UAE-based companies Prime Tankers LLC and Glory International FZ-LLC. Through his companies, Brar owns, operates, or manages a fleet of nearly 30 oil and petroleum product tankers, the majority of which are Handysize tankers that stick to coastal waters and carry a fraction of the cargo of larger tankers. Brar uses these smaller vessels for STS transfers to load Iranian oil from other “shadow fleet” vessels or to load oil or fuel that is smuggled from smaller commercial and fishing vessels. These operations can sometimes take days to complete due to the numerous transfers required to fill a single tanker, the agency said. In this fashion, Brar has coordinated with Houthi financial official Sa’id al-Jamal’s illicit shipping associates on sanctions evasion tactics, specifically the use of smaller vessels in lieu of large oil tankers to obfuscate Iranian oil smuggling in and around the Persian Gulf and Khor al Zubair, Iraq. In 2023, the Glory International-operated and managed NADIYA smuggled Iranian oil on behalf of the Iranian military. The agency added that Brar’s smaller vessels also help obfuscate the movement of Iranian cargoes through STS transfers with sanctioned vessels, often while their Automatic Identification System (AIS) is disabled or manipulated to make the vessels falsely appear to be elsewhere. Brar’s vessels have been observed following high-risk STS patterns on numerous occasions in the waters off Iraq’s Khor Al Zubair and Umm Qasr ports, and near Iran, the UAE, and the Gulf of Oman. At this point, facilitators blend the Iranian oil or fuel with products from other countries and falsify shipping documents to conceal links to Iran, allowing these cargoes to reach the international market via larger tankers. Global Tankers is the owner or manager of a number of vessels in Brar’s fleet. Brar has likely also transported Iranian petroleum for his own personal profit because of its availability at lower prices due to the sanctions risk such cargoes carry. Many of Brar’s vessels that are known to have carried Iranian petroleum make frequent port calls at oil and gas terminals in India, including major ports located near two of B and P Solutions Private Limited’s branches. OFAC is designating Brar pursuant to an executive order for operating in the petroleum sector of the Iranian economy. Prime Tankers, Glory International, Global Tankers, and B and P Solutions Private Limited are being designated for being owned or controlled by, directly or indirectly, Brar. In multiple NIOC contracts signed throughout 2024 worth millions of dollars, Glory International-owned vessels Global Beauty and Global Eagle were selected to provide fuel oil bunkering services to vessels in Iranian waters. The actions have been taken following an Executive Order which targets Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical sectors, and marks the fifth round of sanctions targeting Iranian oil sales since President Donald Trump issued the National Security Presidential Memorandum, ordering a campaign of maximum pressure on Iran. As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated 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. US sanctions generally prohibit all transactions by US persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons. Violations of US sanctions may result in the imposition of civil or criminal penalties on US and foreign persons.
India’s New Oilfield Regulations Attract Investors – BP CEO
India’s upstream oil and gas policy overhaul through a new legislation has made several improvements important for foreign investors that can help attract global players, global energy giant BP’s CEO said. Parliament last month passed a bill that amended the Oil Fields (Regulation and Development) Act of 1948 by expanding its scope to include shale oil, shale gas and coal bed methane, in addition to oil and gas, while introducing sweeping measures aimed at improving the ease of doing business as well as providing fiscal and policy stability aimed to attract domestic and international investment. The new legislation “made several improvements that are important for foreign investors like us,” BP CEO Murray Auchincloss told PTI in an interview. The BP CEO was in India earlier this month, during which he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. “We believe the reforms can help mitigate risks and ensure operational clarity, creating an investor-friendly environment, supporting the modernisation of India’s oil and gas sector, and attracting global players,” he said. He was deeply appreciative of the amendments made in the oilfield act to ease the way for increased foreign investment. He assured the Prime Minister that BP was working to support India’s energy needs in line with Modi’s vision of energy security for India with support from the ministry. The new law gives policy stability and improved financial terms through a series of changes to the decades-old act. These include freedom to pursue international arbitration in the event of disputes, as well as offering a longer lease period. India, which is 85 per cent dependent on imports for meeting its oil needs and buys nearly half of its gas needs from overseas, in recent years has undertaken a series of upstream reforms aimed at encouraging discovery of more oil and gas through increased exploration and bringing them to production quickly. These include greater marketing freedom to producers and allowing companies to carve out areas for oil and gas exploration under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP). BP already partners Reliance Industries in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block that produces about 28 million standard cubic metres of natural gas per day. Last year, BP and Reliance teamed up with state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to bid for an oil and gas exploration block. Both Modi and Puri encouraged BP to participate in the current bid round under OALP. “I encouraged the energy supermajor to aggressively participate in the 10th Round of OALP, the largest bidding round of over 0.2 million sq kms and the first one after the passage of the landmark ORD Act, 2025,” Puri had said after meeting the BP CEO last week. On the bid in OALP-IX round, Auchincloss said Reliance Industries and BP teamed up with ONGC for the OALP-IX bid round to “strengthen our bid for exploration rights in the Gujarat-Saurashtra basin.”
Oil India-CMC Ink CNG Deal
Oil India Limited (OIL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Coal Mines Company Limited (CMC) to establish a Rs 1.50 bn Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) plant, reinforcing India’s clean energy ambitions. Both OIL and CMC will work jointly on the project’s execution, with a strong focus on environmental standards, safety, and technological efficiency. The venture is also expected to stimulate local employment and aid in regional development.
Oil Prices Are on Course for Another Weekly Slump
Crude oil prices were on track to book their second consecutive weekly loss as markets reel from Trump’s tariff offensive, although they stabilized somewhat after the U.S. president announced a 90-day pause on the levies. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $63.01 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $59.74 per barrel. The weekly change in the prices is not very radical, compared with last week’s drop, thanks to the pause that Trump took markets by surprise with on Thursday. The weekly loss for Brent crude, according to Reuters, will be 4% and the loss for WTI is estimated at 3.8%. Last week, both benchmarks shed as much as 11%. “While the pause offers some relief to markets, there’s still plenty of uncertainty on the trade front,” ING commodity analysts Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a note earlier today. “This uncertainty is still likely to drag on global growth, which is clearly a concern for oil demand. Still, conditions are not looking as bad as they were just a few days ago.” The main factor exerting pressure on oil prices continues to be fear of a global recession, as the effect of the tariff pause is yet to be processed by market players fully. ANZ analysts have estimated that if global economic growth slows to below 3%, oil consumption will shed 1%. For now, the situation remains uncertain, with both the United States and China signaling they were willing to negotiate a deal but keeping the pressure on the other, too. China’s latest retaliatory move after Trump imposed more tariffs on Chinese imports was to restrict imports of Hollywood movies. The move appears to be largely symbolic, according to analysts, because Hollywood productions have been generating diminishing returns in China over the past few years, Reuters reported.
Petronet LNG To Establish 50,000 MT Land-Based Terminal At Odisha’s Gopalpur Port, Marking First On India’s East Coast
Petronet LNG Ltd (PLL) is set to establish a 50,000 MT land-based LNG terminal at Gopalpur Port in Odisha’s Ganjam district, marking its first such facility on India’s east coast. This landmark project is part of the ₹ 988.80 billion investment commitments secured by the state during a two-day Investors’ Meet recently held in New Delhi, highlighting Odisha’s focus on strengthening its energy infrastructure. Initially conceived as a Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) with a capacity of 4 MMTPA, the project has now evolved into a larger 5 MMTPA land-based terminal, further boosting the country’s LNG regasification capacity. Petronet’s terminal and ancillary industries are expected to play a crucial role in driving this employment boom. One of the most significant announcements came from Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), whose Dual-Feed Naphtha Cracker Project in Paradip (Jahatsinghpur district) alone will attract over ₹ 580.42 billion in investment and create jobs for 24,000 people.