Oil Espionage: How the NSA and GCHQ Spied on OPEC

Documents disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal that both America’s National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have infiltrated the computer network of the the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

In January 2008, the NSA department in charge of energy issues reported it had accomplished its mission. Intelligence information about individual petroleum-exporting countries had existed before then, but now the NSA had managed, for the first time, to infiltrate OPEC in its entirety.OPEC, founded in 1960, has its headquarters in a box-like building in Vienna. Its main objective is to control the global oil market, and to keep prices high. The 12 member states include Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran and Iraq.

A Treasure Trove of Information

When the NSA used the Internet to infiltrate OPEC’s computers, its analysts discovered an internal study in the OPEC Research Division. It stated that OPEC officials were trying to cast the blame for high oil prices on speculators. A look at files in the OPEC legal department revealed how the organization was preparing itself for an antitrust suit in the United States. And a review of the section reserved for the OPEC secretary general documented that the Saudis were using underhanded tactics, even within the organization. According to the NSA analysts, Riyadh had tried to keep an increase in oil production a secret for as long as possible.

Saudi Arabia’s OPEC governor is also on the list of individuals targeted for surveillance, for which the NSA had secured approval from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The documents show how careful the Americans were to suspend their surveillance when the Saudi visited the United States. But as soon as he had returned to Riyadh, the NSA analysts began infiltrating his communications once again.

Praise from Department of Energy

According to a 2010 report, one of the analysts’ conclusions was that the Saudis had released incorrect oil production figures. The typical “customers” for such information were the CIA, the US State Department and the Department of Energy, which promptly praised the NSA for confirming what it had suspected for years.

The British, who also targeted OPEC’s Vienna headquarters, were at least as successful as the NSA. A secret GCHQ document dating from 2010 states that the agency had traditionally had “poor access” to OPEC. But that year, after a long period of meticulous work, it had managed to infiltrate the computers of nine OPEC employees by using the “Quantum Insert” method, which then creates a gateway to gain access into OPEC’s computer system. GCHQ analysts were even able to acquire administrator privileges for the OPEC network and gain access to two secret servers containing “many documents of interest.”

OPEC appears in the “National Intelligence Priorities Framework,” which the White House issues to the US intelligence community. Although the organization is still listed as an intelligence target in the April 2013 list, it is no longer a high-priority target. Now that the United States is less dependent on Saudi petroleum, thanks to fracking and new oil discoveries, the fact that OPEC is not identified as a top priority anymore indicates that interest in the organization has declined.

SPIEGEL

6 Comments on "Oil Espionage: How the NSA and GCHQ Spied on OPEC"

Luke on Tue, 12th Nov 2013 2:20 pm 



Did the N(azi)SA also look into the polygynous household of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman bin Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Saud? Might be still interesting…..
Hopefully they call of a sharia against the anglosaxian secret services. I mean a sharia on the internet…..
And when the fracking is cracked, the sharia will kill the US by squeezing the oil….

Luke on Tue, 12th Nov 2013 2:42 pm 



I meant jihad instead of sharia… but the effect might be the same…

krishna on Tue, 12th Nov 2013 3:48 pm 



opec have 81% of oil reserves and produces 30 mb non opec with 20 % reserves produces 41 mb look at the ratio if we consider non-opec opec should produce 160 mb but it is at 20% of what its production capacity don’t you feel something fishy going on there ….

Arthur on Tue, 12th Nov 2013 5:56 pm 



Why not buy an iPhone5 and deliver your fingerprints to the NSA for free?

Plantagenet on Tue, 12th Nov 2013 6:31 pm 



Remember—Obama knew nothing about this. He knew nothing.

Luke on Tue, 12th Nov 2013 9:41 pm 



Of course, Oilbamics is blacker than oil. And so is fascist NSA, the US Gestapo equivalent. Humanity will only learn when it is too late.