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