Iranian Oil Brokers Advertise Openly on Instagram/ Brief

Описание: MAY 06, 2025 - A Kharon investigation reveals how Iran's oil and gas industry continues to thrive despite the Trump administration's sanctions. Discover how Middle Eastern companies are openly conducting business on Instagram, showcasing their dealings with Chinese oil companies. Learn about the key players, such as EMA Silk Road East and Asia Nodezh Development and Trading, and their strategic partnerships with the Iranian National Oil Company that defy U.S. pressure and operate using social media platforms, like Instagram.

In Context:
A number of Middle Eastern firms are using Instagram to advertise their exports of Iranian petroleum products to China and other countries around the world, despite the risks of U.S. sanctions for facilitating such trade.

These companies, which have not been sanctioned, have posted publicly on the U.S.-based social media platform about their products and documented their sales with photographs, continuing this activity into the Trump administration. According to trade data reviewed by Kharon, some of these businesses have exported Iranian petroleum products to countries such as India, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

Kharon’s investigation into these networks comes as the U.S. escalates its crackdown on entities connected to the Iranian oil and gas industry, part of its “maximum pressure” campaign to influence ongoing nuclear talks.

“ALERT: All purchases of Iranian Oil, or Petrochemical products, must stop, NOW!” President Trump posted on Truth Social last week. Any country or person who buys “ANY AMOUNT of OIL or PETROCHEMICALS” from Iran, he wrote, will be subject to secondary sanctions.

But the Middle Eastern companies on Instagram have not been hiding their Iranian petrochemicals business. They’ve been touting it.

The China nexus
Chinese business with Iran’s oil and gas industry has been a prominent target for the Trump Treasury Department, which in recent months has designated multiple Chinese “teapot” refineries for their mass purchases of Iranian crude oil. But Chinese companies are buying more than just crude, as some Instagram accounts convey.

EMA Silk Road East, an Iranian company founded in 2023, promotes the Iran-China petrochemical trade on an Instagram page under the username “bitumen_iran_china,” referring to a product commonly used for road construction. In its bio, EMA advertises that it provides petroleum services between Iran and China and that it can “export your products & import the products you need” by ship or plane.

In January, EMA published to Instagram a joint post with Stellifer International FZCO, a UAE-based bitumen supplier that’s similarly active on the platform. The post’s first of four photographs showed a row of posing executives, with the caption reading: “Meetings with Chinese oil holding companies accompanied by Shanghai police chief.” It garnered more than 100 likes.

EMA’s China connections, however, go beyond trade. Two of its directors, including its chairman, manage the Shanghai-based Trade Promotion Center of Iran in China. According to its website, the center was established “to expand economic and technical cooperation” between the two countries.

The Instagram page for Asia Nodezh Development and Trading, another Iranian company, advertises its sale of petroleum products to China, too. One post, from March 2024, shows a truck delivering petroleum products with the caption: “Delivered premium 60/70 bitumen in flexible tanks to China with satisfaction guaranteed!”

According to Chinese corporate records, Asia Nodezh’s owners controlled a Chinese company, Guangzhou Yinuo Trading Co, from 2018 until 2024, when its business license was revoked. But Asia Nodezh’s owners may have found new partners in China afterward. The company’s listed China factory shares an address and phone number, respectively, with two more Chinese companies. One of them, Zibo Yihai Packaging Products Co., changed the scope of its business activities in December to include the sale of petroleum products.
. . .

Read more on Kharon’s Investigation into Iranian oil brokers from the Kharon Brief:
https://www.kharon.com/brief/iran-san...

Watch now to understand how Iran's oil trade continues to operate in the digital age, defying international sanctions.

🔔 Subscribe: Kharon - YouTube
   / @kharondata  

See more videos like this on our Brief 2025 Video Playlist
   • The Brief 2025  

If you found this look at how Iranian petrochemical brokers outing US sanctions helpful, hit the like button and subscribe for more insights from Kharon


Find us at:
https://www.kharon.com/brief