The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned six Indian companies for their involvement in trading petrochemicals produced in Iran, according to a report released by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.

Companies sanctioned included Global Industrial Chemicals Limited, Ramniklal S Gosalia and Company, Persistent Petrochem Private Limited, Kanchan Polymers, Ensa Ship Management, Shreeji Gems and Alchemical Solutions Private Limited – all of which traded significant amounts of Iranian product worth millions in 2024 and early 2025.

Currently, all companies listed are now banned from engaging in any transactions with US entities or individuals, with all property and interests within US jurisdiction frozen. Other firms with significant holdings in any of the sanctioned entities (50% or more) will also be banned from dealing with US bodies.

The US’s expansion of its sanctions programme comes as part of Washington’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign, aimed at damaging Iran’s petrochemical export networks – allegedly used to fund destabilising activities.

India is the latest target in US sights in its attempts to push the current Iranian regime towards collapse, with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noting that “By targeting Iran’s oil revenue stream, the Treasury will further degrade the regime’s ability to carry out attacks against the United States and its allies.”

There are concerns that US tariffs and sanctions are beginning to push ostracised parties together however, and meetings conducted in August suggest that a Chinese-centric market may be on the rise, with India moving into this sphere of influence owing to tariffs, along with Russia and Iran.

In October 2024, the US had already unleashed sanctions on numerous companies associated with Iran’s oil and petrochemical sectors following Tehran’s attack on Israel on October 1.

The decision was revealed in a statement made by the US’s Treasury Department on October 11 that year which noted that it would be targeting Iran’s “shadow fleet” – ships that are engaged in selling Iranian oil in defiance of existing sanctions.

Following this ruling, 10 companies and 17 vessels were designated as “blocked property” due to their complicity in shipping Iranian products abroad.

The US State Department additionally announced that it would be sanctioning an additional six companies and six ships for “knowingly engaging in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum or petroleum products from Iran.”