2 Indians face U.S. sanctions for aiding Iran with oil commerce

The U.S. has sanctioned greater than 50 entities, people and vessels for allegedly facilitating Iranian power gross sales, in keeping with an official assertion.

Two Indian nationals are the amongst these going through the sanctions, introduced by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Thursday (October 9, 2025).

“These actors have collectively enabled the export of billions of {dollars}’ value of petroleum and petroleum merchandise, offering important income to the Iranian regime and its assist for terrorist teams that threaten the United States,” the division stated in a press launch.

The sanctions are a part of the division’s efforts to curb Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical exports. “The Treasury Department is degrading Iran’s money circulate by dismantling key components of Iran’s power export machine,” it stated, quoting Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.

One of the Indian nationals sanctioned is Varun Pula, who owns Marshall Islands-based Bertha Shipping Inc., which owns and operates Comoros-flagged vessel PAMIR. The vessel has transported almost 4 million barrels of Iranian LPG to China since July 2024, in keeping with the U.S. assertion.

The different Indian nationwide sanctioned is Soniya Shrestha, who owns Vega Star Ship Management Private Limited. The firm owns and operates one other Comoros-flagged vessel, NEPTA, which has transported Iranian-origin LPG to Pakistan since January 2025.  The assertion added that every one “property and interests in property of the designated or blocked persons” which might be within the U.S. or within the possession or management of U.S. individuals are blocked and have to be reported to OFAC.