{"id":34140,"date":"2013-09-30T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2013-09-30T11:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=34140"},"modified":"2015-05-06T08:59:00","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T07:59:00","slug":"the-oil-is-ours-but-its-secrets-are-the-nsas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/09\/the-oil-is-ours-but-its-secrets-are-the-nsas\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Oil Is Ours\u201d \u2013 But Its Secrets Are the NSA\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"P-51,<\/a>

P-51, the first 100 percent Brazilian platform, has a capacity to produce 180,000 barrels of crude and six million cubic metres of gas per day. Credit: Divulga\u00e7\u00e3o Petrobras\/ABr<\/p><\/div>\n

Reported U.S. spying on Brazil\u2019s Petrobras oil firm revived the controversy over opening up the company, a symbol of Brazilian sovereignty since the 1950s, to foreign investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe oil is ours\u201d was the cry that arose with the discovery of oil and gas during the government of Getulio Vargas (1930-1945) and that became the slogan of the founding of Petrobras in 1953.<\/p>\n

It took on new force in 1997, when then president Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2003) declared the end of the state monopoly and opened the company up to local and foreign private investment.<\/p>\n

It began to be heard again in 2007, when Petrobras discovered massive offshore oil reserves 180 km from the coast and 7,000 km below sea level, under a thick layer of salt.<\/p>\n

And then again in 2010, when then president Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva (2003-2011) replaced the current concessions system, under which companies bid for the rights to explore new oil blocks, with a production-sharing regime between the state and private companies.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian government is the largest shareholder in Petrobras, a publicly traded company whose closely guarded secrets \u2013 such as the volume of reserves or the deep water exploration technology it has developed \u2013 may already be in the hands of the U.S. government and its allies.<\/p>\n

Rio-based U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald revealed earlier this month that leaked National Security Agency (NSA) documents indicated that it had spied on Petrobras \u2013 Brazil\u2019s largest company and the world\u2019s fourth largest oil company.<\/p>\n

Secret documents from 2012 that were given to Greenwald by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden reportedly show that Petrobras was at the top of a list of targets for intelligence gathering.<\/p>\n

The documents, part of a presentation used to train new agents on how to breach private computer networks, do not show to what extent NSA deciphered secret information from Petrobras\u2019 computers.<\/p>\n

But they do undermine the explanation presented by the U.S. agency with respect to earlier reports that it had intercepted the private communications of Brazilian citizens and of President Dilma Rousseff herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout a doubt, Petrobras does not represent a threat to the security of any country,\u201d Rousseff said. \u201cWhat it does represent is one of the world\u2019s largest oil assets, a heritage of the Brazilian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petrobras has an annual turnover of around 90 billion dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that the motive was not security or fighting terrorism, but economic and strategic interests,\u201d the president added.<\/p>\n

The vulnerability of the company\u2019s secrets has once again fanned the sentiment that \u201cthe oil is ours\u201d, as well as arguments in favour of and against a greater opening to private investment in Petrobras.<\/p>\n

One of the focuses of the controversy is the Libra oil field in the Santos Basin, one of Brazil\u2019s richest offshore sub-salt deposits, set to be opened up to bidding in October.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian government denied that the bidding would be suspended due to fears that leaked information could favour U.S. or British companies, as newspaper reports claimed.<\/p>\n

The president of the association of Petrobras engineers, Silvio Sinedino, told IPS that \u201cWe are opposed to any bidding. We have long demanded that our oil should not be handed over the way it is here, and especially not in a fabulous oilfield where there is no risk because it has already been explored and has a confirmed capacity of 12 to 15 billion barrels of oil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s sub-salt reserves are estimated at 80 to 100 billion barrels \u2013 enough to supply the country for 40 to 50 years, he noted.<\/p>\n

Sinedino said the Cardoso administration\u2019s \u201cprivatisation\u201d of Petrobras and telecommunications left Brazil more exposed to espionage.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven our military communications go through U.S. satellites, which are obviously controlled by agents from that country,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Adriano Pires, a consultant with the Brazilian Infrastructure Centre, said Petrobras was targeted by spying because \u201cafter 50 years of monopoly\u2026no one knows the technological secrets of deep water oil drilling like Petrobras does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing the company as \u201cnumber one\u201d in that area, Pires told IPS that \u201cno one knows more about the probability of finding oil.\u201d<\/p>\n

That knowledge, he said, is coveted at a time when possible sub-salt reserves off the coast of West Africa are being disputed.<\/p>\n

But using the revelations of espionage to once again discuss the merits of opening up Petrobras to private investment is \u201cfoolishness\u201d characteristic of \u201cextreme nationalist\u201d rhetoric, he argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a great deal of noise and speculation about the espionage, fuelled even by people inside the government, to once again allege that the United States is trying to seize Brazil\u2019s wealth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sub-salt reserves are huge, and Petrobras cannot exploit them by itself, with its liquidity issues. We need U.S., Swedish, British, Norwegian or Australian companies to tap the reserves,\u201d Pires said.<\/p>\n

Tullo Vigevani, a political science professor at the S\u00e3o Paulo State University, said he was not surprised by the news of the alleged industrial espionage because \u201cthe energy question is a central focus of U.S. policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is one of the key issues of politics at a global level,\u201d he told IPS. \u201cAnd information is an essential element. The new discoveries in Brazil, especially in the sub-salt area, require tight surveillance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vigevani said that above and beyond the Brazilian government\u2019s demand for explanations, any solution to defend the country\u2019s strategic interests must be long-term in nature.<\/p>\n

In view of what appears to be inevitable, he said, Brazil should invest more in developing science and technology \u201cautonomously, in developing skills, and in developing systems that are more immune to intrusions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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