Iran Pricing Oil in Euros and Yen
April 30th, 2008Via: AP/IHT:
Iran, OPEC’s second-largest producer, has stopped conducting oil transactions in U.S. dollars, a top Oil Ministry official said Wednesday, a concerted attempt to reduce reliance on Washington at a time of tension over Tehran’s nuclear program and suspected involvement in Iraq.
Iran has dramatically reduced dependence on the dollar over the past year in the face of increasing U.S. pressure on its financial system and the fall in the value of the American currency.
Oil is priced in U.S. dollars on the world market, and the currency’s depreciation has concerned producers because it has contributed to rising crude prices and eroded the value of their dollar reserves.
“The dollar has totally been removed from Iran’s oil transactions,” Oil Ministry official Hojjatollah Ghanimifard told state-run television Wednesday. “We have agreed with all of our crude oil customers to do our transactions in non-dollar currencies.”
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the depreciating dollar a “worthless piece of paper” at a rare summit last year in Saudi Arabia attended by state leaders from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Iran put pressure on other OPEC countries at the meeting to price oil in a basket of currencies, but it has not been able to generate support from fellow members — many of whom, including Saudi Arabia, are staunch U.S. allies.
Iran has a tense relationship with the U.S., which has accused Tehran of using its nuclear program as a cover for weapons development and providing support to Shiite militants in Iraq that are killing American troops. Iran has denied the allegations.
The U.S. is sending a second U.S. aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, a deployment that Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday could serve as a “reminder” to Iran. But he said it’s not an escalation of force.
Speaking to reporters after meeting with Mexican leaders, Gates said the number of ships there rises and falls continuously. He said he doesn’t expect there to be two carriers there for a long time.
Asked if the carrier move went hand in hand with the rising U.S. rhetoric against Iran, Gates said, “I don’t see it as an escalation. I think it could be seen, though, as a reminder.”
Iranian oil officials have said previously that they were shifting oil sales out of the dollar into other currencies, but Ghanimifard indicated Wednesday that all of Iran’s oil transactions were now conducted in either euros or yen.
“In Europe, Iran’s oil is sold in euros, but both euros and yen are paid for Iranian crude in Asia,” said Ghanimifard.
Iran’s central bank has also been reducing its foreign reserves denominated in U.S. dollars, motivated by the falling value of the greenback and U.S. attempts to make it difficult for Iran to conduct dollar transactions.
Hell, this alone is worth bombing the shit out of them. 😉
Iraq started pricing it’s oil in Euros back in 2000, and look what happened to them.
Apart from the blood lust of the Israelis, this is one of the main reasons for the current war, and possibly the next one that they’re currently trying to start.
I don’t know what to think. Certainly, the Iranian’s aren’t savage beasts, put they do know how to poke at the American monster in its soft spots. HAR HAR HAR.
I dunno. I want to applaud the Iranians. I wish I could find a link sent to me in now what seems a decade ago of pictures of what Iran looks like.
They don’t live in mud huts. They have cities of beauty that look like Paris in the springtime.
Iran is filled with people of beauty, culture. They have toilets, showers, they grow food. Not every street corner is filled with dark looking Muslimites bearing weapons aimed at Amerika.
Well, I guess the audience on Cryptogon knows that already but what the fluck?
If you had Dick Cheney pointing his dick at you wouldn’t you also be tempted to stick your tongue out at him and say and do in kind?
I just hope that the day comes in my lifetime that my country has adults behind the steering wheel of energy and foreign policy.
Just hoping.