WASHINGTON — The US Treasury Department on Thursday announced new sanctions targeting Iran’s oil and petrochemical industry as the administration shifts its focus away from reviving the landmark nuclear deal. 

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated nine entities it said were involved in producing, shipping and selling Iranian petrochemical and petroleum, including six Iran-based manufacturers or their subsidiaries. Also targeted with sanctions were firms in Malaysia and Singapore that Treasury said were involved in facilitating sales and shipments on behalf of the previously sanctioned Hong Kong-based broker Triliance Petrochemical Co. Ltd. 

Iran’s oil sector has been under heavy US sanctions since former President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear agreement in 2018. Absent a revived pact, the Biden administration has pledged to step up its use of sanctions targeting Iran’s illicit oil revenue. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Thursday that the latest sanctions were part of “continued efforts to enforce U.S. sanctions on Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical trade and disrupt Iran’s efforts to circumvent sanctions.”