The US Treasury has sanctioned 17 vessels and their owners it says carried Iranian oil to Asia, while the State Department announced separate designations on the same day.
The measures were announced on Thursday 8 October 2026 under a programme the US government calls "Operation Economic Outcast". According to a US Treasury press release, the ships carried millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil, petroleum and petrochemicals to markets in South and East Asia.
Treasury said the vessels are registered across more than a dozen jurisdictions and operate through international front companies. CNBC reported the same core details of the action, as did Quartz and the opposition outlet Iran International.
The department said it acted under Executive Order 13902. Iran International reported that the designations freeze any assets of the targets under US jurisdiction and generally bar US persons from dealing with them. The outlet added that foreign banks that continue to do business with the targets risk secondary sanctions.
Treasury named several vessels. Iran International, citing the Treasury statement, reported that the Cameroon-flagged Shenzhen had carried more than 3.5 million barrels of crude since November 2025. The Vanuatu-flagged Tina 5 was said by Treasury to have moved more than 1.5 million barrels in August.
CNBC also listed the Comoros-flagged liquefied petroleum gas tanker SOGL among the vessels targeted. The designated companies include firms in China, Hong Kong, the Marshall Islands and the British Virgin Islands, according to Iran International.
Scott Bessent, the US Treasury Secretary, said in the Treasury statement, as carried by Iran International, that Treasury would continue to expose those who enable Iranian oil sales. He added: "No enabler of Iranian sanctions evasion is safe from the full force of Treasury's authorities."
The US Treasury also removed two vessels from the sanctions list. Quartz reported that the Hakuna Matata and the Pinocchio, which were designated in June 2025, were delisted. Quartz said Treasury attributed the move to their sale to operators that are not sanctioned and are aligned with US interests.
On the same day, the State Department announced its own set of designations. In a State Department release, it said it had sanctioned ten entities, six individuals and five vessels linked to Iranian petroleum and petrochemical trade. It cited Executive Order 13846 as its authority.
The State Department's five vessels are separate from the 17 named by Treasury, according to a reading of the two releases. The State Department described Iran as disrupting global energy supplies, a characterisation that comes from the US government.
Treasury used terms such as "illicit" and "remnants" to describe the trade and the fleet that remains. These are the US government's descriptions, and no independent verification of them was available.
CNBC reported that the action is not expected on its own to cause major changes in Iran's economy, and said Treasury is targeting what it called the remnants of the fleet. It also reported that Treasury links the measures to limiting Iran's ability to attack vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Treasury said vessels regularly enter and leave the network and that it will continue to monitor it. The department did not set out further planned designations in the material reviewed.
No response from the Iranian government or Iranian state media had been reported at the time of writing. No comment had been reported either from China, Hong Kong or the other jurisdictions where the vessels and companies are registered or based.
CNBC described the sanctions as part of US efforts to pressure Tehran's economy to end a war that it said began more than seven months ago. Iran International, which is an opposition outlet, referred to a US-Israeli conflict with Iran. Its report closely follows the Treasury statement.
The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control had previously designated vessels described as part of Iran's shadow fleet in June 2025. The term refers to tankers that move sanctioned oil through ownership structures and registrations that obscure its origin.
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