OSLO – In a new report, PST states that Russia and China are spying on the Norwegian oil sector. At the same time, Russia believes PST is engaged in “primitive propaganda.”

“Russian, Chinese, and other countries’ intelligence services gather information about the Norwegian petroleum sector,” the Police Security Service (PST) stated in a report dated November 5, which was published on the agency’s website on Thursday.

Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv was the first to report on the information.

“NTNU and Sintef could be targets”

PST believes that, in addition to the Norwegian authorities, targets include public and private companies, technology environments at universities, and research institutes.

Sintef and NTNU are mentioned as examples of research environments that could be intelligence targets.

PST also points out that parts of petroleum technology “have a multi-use potential in military purposes, and part of the petroleum technology can also be used in the development of renewable energy.”

The security agency also believes that people who work or have a connection to the petroleum sector, and people who work with oil and gas policy, are exposed to potential recruitment from foreign countries’ intelligence sources.

In August, a Norwegian citizen employed by DNV GL was arrested for revealing state secrets to Russia.

“Primitive propaganda”

“There is nothing new in PST statements about “Russian threats” to the petroleum sector. It is only general speculation.

“The special service has been engaged in primitive propaganda for several years, intimidating Norway’s population, looking for enemies where they do not exist,” the Russian embassy wrote in a statement to Dagens Næringsliv (DN).

They believe that Norway should think about facilitating more cooperation “instead of demonizing Russia.”

The Chinese embassy has not responded to the newspaper’s inquiry.