The U.S. Treasury Department is sanctioning 17 vessels it says are part of Iran’s shadow fleet, a network of tankers the regime uses to move petroleum and petrochemical products to foreign markets in defiance of U.S. sanctions.
The designations are part of Operation Economic Outcast, the Treasury-led pressure campaign against Iran. According to the department, the action takes aim at what it called the remnants of Iran’s illicit maritime network — vessels sailing under flags from more than a dozen countries and controlled through a constellation of international front companies. Treasury also designated 18 companies connected to the vessels under Executive Order 13902, which targets the Iranian petroleum and petrochemical sectors.
“Treasury is starving the tyrannical regime in Tehran of the money it uses to wage war in the region, and we will continue exposing those who enable the regime’s oil sales,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “No enabler of Iranian sanctions evasion is safe from the full force of Treasury’s authorities.”
The list of targeted vessels includes the Cameroon-flagged crude oil tanker SHENZHEN, which Treasury says has been responsible for moving more than 3.5 million barrels of Iranian crude oil since November 2025; the Comoros-flagged LPG tanker SOGL, which Treasury says shuttled more than two million barrels of Iranian propane and butane beginning in September 2025; and the Panama-flagged STARWAY, which Treasury says carried over three million barrels of Iranian naphtha over the course of 2025.
Iran has ceased loading and offloading oil as a result of the U.S. blockade currently in place around its ports, a Treasury official said, according to CNBC. With the blockade in force, Iran’s crude supplies sitting on ships beyond the perimeter have dwindled to around 20 million barrels, a Treasury official told reporters, according to Reuters.
As part of Thursday’s action, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also removed two vessels — the HAKUNA MATATA and the PINOCCHIO — from its sanctions list. Both had been designated in June 2025 as part of Iran’s shadow fleet. Treasury said the removals reflect a change in circumstances, namely the sale of each vessel to non-sanctioned operators aligned with U.S. interests.
Operation Economic Outcast launched in late August 2026, when Bessent announced the campaign and warned that no country would be exempt from sanctions exposure, including China. Treasury said at the time that it had mapped the networks, facilitators, and financial channels Iran uses to smuggle oil, evade sanctions, and fund its regional activities. The campaign has since expanded to cover Iran’s automotive and rail sectors, as well as its metals industry, in a separate round of designations announced last week.
All property and interests of the designated persons held in the United States or by U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC, Treasury said. Violations of U.S. sanctions may result in civil or criminal penalties.