OPEC May Trade Oil in €uros to Compensate for US$ Freefall

OPEC President and former Minister of Energy and Mines, Alvaro Silva Calderon, says that OPEC might switch its oil trade from US Dollars to Euros.

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Secretary General, former Venezuelan Energy & Mines Minister Alvaro Silva Calderon says the oil cartel is seriously considering to abandon the US$ as a trading currency and to adopt the €ur0 to compensate for the US$’s recently plummeting international value.

The plan is to ditch the greenback in one way or another and an alternative proposal is to trade international oil in a basket of currencies other than the US$, Silva Calderon says in an telephone interview from Vienna (Austria) with Venezuelan state news agency, VENPRES.  “There is talk of trading crude in €uros … it’s one of the alternatives!”

Arab nations are mindful of the fact that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s decision to convert his country’s international trading to the €uro may have accelerated the US/UK invasion of Iraq but they are somewhat strengthened by China’s plans backed by similar Russian plans to join the €uro as the US currency continues its freefall.

Meeting in Vienna last week, OPEC oil ministers had expressed concern over the US$’s demise against the €uro and Japanese ¥en where many OPEC members nations are more reliant on imports from Europe and Japan than Stateside.  Washington’s crippling trade deficit and fears that the Bush 2 regime is printing more banknotes than it can possibly cover, have exacerbated the situation.

The US$ has just hit a new low against the €uro with the European common currency reaching US$=€1.2276 in a 3-year low also against the ¥en at 107.19 … Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi says last week’s decision to keep its target output ceiling stable at 24.5 million barrels a day was partly due in part to the weakening dollar.

Original article: VHeadline

Source: VHeadline