Who gets Iran's sanctioned oil? Secret documents reveal Tehran's new crude trade network
Iran has entrusted millions of barrels of sanctioned crude to a new group of oil traders, even though some of the intermediaries allegedly still owe billions of dollars from earlier sales, according to confidential documents and Iranian oil ministry sources cited by Iran International.
A confidential letter from the protection unit of Iran’s supreme national security council to the oil ministry questioned the decision to give large volumes of crude to four “trustees” on credit and at steep discounts. The oil was allocated after a new sales team took charge in July.
The letter said the former head of Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO) had flagged the traders’ outstanding debts and their failure to return billions of dollars from previous oil sales. Despite this, they were offered a discount of $8.50 per barrel, which the document described as unusual, the report said.
Mohammad Javad Bavand , a former Revolutionary Guards intelligence official, has emerged as a key figure in the new arrangement. Two oil ministry sources said he assembled a network of five trusted intermediaries after returning to the ministry.
One of them is trader Mohammad Hadi Momenin, who Iran International previously reported had failed to return around $2 billion in Iranian oil proceeds.
The network also includes Mostafa Niazazari, who was a defendant in the corruption case involving former senior judiciary official Akbar Tabari; businessmen Hassan Afrashtehpour and Masoud Modallal; and Ali Bayandorian, who was sanctioned by the US over alleged financing for the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force.
Disputed China oil cargoA second confidential document details a dispute over two million barrels of Iranian crude shipped to China aboard the sanctioned tanker Lily, linked to a shadow fleet associated with Hossein Shamkhani, son of former senior Iranian security official Ali Shamkhani.
The cargo reached China’s Dongjiakou port on March 24. After a financial dispute, the tanker’s owner took control of the shipment, according to the document.
Momenin later recovered the cargo at NICO’s request and stored it in tanks at Dongjiakou. He subsequently sought $33 million in compensation, including $27 million related to the loss in value of the tanker Covenio after US sanctions and $6 million in charter costs involving another tanker, Jaya.
According to the record of a June 28 oil ministry meeting, Bavand instructed Momenin to return ownership of the cargo to the ministry. One of Momenin’s companies was also to charter Covenio for a year at $90,000 per day.
Both Covenio and Jaya are part of Shamkhani’s sanctioned shadow fleet.
From intelligence to oilBavand’s role in sanctioned oil trading dates back to the period after the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and the restoration of sanctions on Iranian oil exports.
He was sent by the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence organisation to a security committee involved in developing ways to bypass the sanctions. He later moved to the oil ministry, where he took charge of trading sanctioned oil.
After returning to the ministry, Bavand was appointed special assistant to oil minister Mohsen Paknejad for supervision of oil trading.
A confidential letter from the protection unit of Iran’s supreme national security council to the oil ministry questioned the decision to give large volumes of crude to four “trustees” on credit and at steep discounts. The oil was allocated after a new sales team took charge in July.
The letter said the former head of Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO) had flagged the traders’ outstanding debts and their failure to return billions of dollars from previous oil sales. Despite this, they were offered a discount of $8.50 per barrel, which the document described as unusual, the report said.
Mohammad Javad Bavand , a former Revolutionary Guards intelligence official, has emerged as a key figure in the new arrangement. Two oil ministry sources said he assembled a network of five trusted intermediaries after returning to the ministry.
One of them is trader Mohammad Hadi Momenin, who Iran International previously reported had failed to return around $2 billion in Iranian oil proceeds.
The network also includes Mostafa Niazazari, who was a defendant in the corruption case involving former senior judiciary official Akbar Tabari; businessmen Hassan Afrashtehpour and Masoud Modallal; and Ali Bayandorian, who was sanctioned by the US over alleged financing for the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force.
Disputed China oil cargoA second confidential document details a dispute over two million barrels of Iranian crude shipped to China aboard the sanctioned tanker Lily, linked to a shadow fleet associated with Hossein Shamkhani, son of former senior Iranian security official Ali Shamkhani.
The cargo reached China’s Dongjiakou port on March 24. After a financial dispute, the tanker’s owner took control of the shipment, according to the document.
Momenin later recovered the cargo at NICO’s request and stored it in tanks at Dongjiakou. He subsequently sought $33 million in compensation, including $27 million related to the loss in value of the tanker Covenio after US sanctions and $6 million in charter costs involving another tanker, Jaya.
According to the record of a June 28 oil ministry meeting, Bavand instructed Momenin to return ownership of the cargo to the ministry. One of Momenin’s companies was also to charter Covenio for a year at $90,000 per day.
Both Covenio and Jaya are part of Shamkhani’s sanctioned shadow fleet.
From intelligence to oilBavand’s role in sanctioned oil trading dates back to the period after the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and the restoration of sanctions on Iranian oil exports.
He was sent by the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence organisation to a security committee involved in developing ways to bypass the sanctions. He later moved to the oil ministry, where he took charge of trading sanctioned oil.
After returning to the ministry, Bavand was appointed special assistant to oil minister Mohsen Paknejad for supervision of oil trading.
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