Iran's state-owned energy sector, one of the most profitable in the world, has become a major target of international espionage. It was therefore subjected to new sanctions by the United States this year. The purpose of the Washington sanctions is to limit the Islamic Republic's ability to export energy and, thereby, end the country's dependence on its main source of income. Tehran's energy exports are estimated to have declined by about 80% in the past year and could continue to decline if the US succeeds in imposing new sanctions.
This means that American and Iranian intelligence agencies are currently engaged in an intense spy war that focuses on what's left of Iran's oil exports. Iran continues to attract international buyers by selling energy at prices below the market, while sales are facilitated by the use of "disposable" bank accounts that are difficult to trace. Exports are then smuggled into overseas destinations through a variety of means.
In an article published last week, Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times explains that every bit of information about the Iranian oil industry has now become a "valuable geopolitical weapon" in a "global espionage and counterintelligence game."
Fassihi cites a recent statement by Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh that "information on Iran's oil exports is war information".
This includes information on how Iran manages to deliver its exports overseas and how it gets paid to do so. Once the US tightened sanctions against Tehran, Iranian energy officials began to suspect that most of the oil purchase requests came from foreign spies seeking information on transaction methods, Fassihi writes.
So the Ministry of Oil stopped allowing thousands of independent energy brokers to broker energy purchases. The Ministry continued to concentrate all transactions in the hands of approximately five controlled individuals who had previous mandates in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and with other government agencies. Tehran's Ministry of Oil has also begun to train its officials on security and counterintelligence protocols.
When the Iranians made it difficult to access information through the Oil Ministry, foreign spy agencies changed their tactics, writes Fassihi. They used foreign academic researchers, including doctoral students, who offered cash payments for information on Iranian oil export methods.
Others went down to Tehran offering visas to the United States, alcohol, prostitutes and cash payments ranging between $ 100.000 and over $ 1 million in exchange for information on Iran's energy export sector.
There is an atmosphere of paranoia in the Iranian capital, writes Fassihi, and the process of buying oil from Iran is reminiscent of a Hollywood spy thriller. Representatives of foreign buyers are encouraged to come to Tehran in person and are regularly required to change hotels in the middle of the night. Also, once a transaction is agreed, the buyer's representative must remain in a safe house of the Ministry of Petroleum until the funds are transferred to the coffers of the Iranian government. After that, the representative is authorized to leave, writes Fassihi.