Free Republic

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, may use the Russian ruble in trading on its new oil exchange, the country's ambassador to Moscow said. "Big energy producers like Iran and Russia should try to free the world of dollar slavery," Ambassador Gholamreza Ansari said on Moscow's Ekho Moskvy radio station today. The two nations already cooperate in nuclear energy and may start closer coordination of natural-gas production. Russia holds the world's largest gas reserves, followed by Iran, and together they produce of almost a fifth of the world's oil. The two share the goal of finding...

July 13 TOKYO: Iran has asked Japanese refiners to pay in yen currency for all crude oil purchases in an apparent attempt to reduce the Middle Eastern country's U.S. dollar holdings, a news report said Saturday. Iran, in a standoff with the U.S. over its uranium enrichment program, has asked to switch to yen-based transactions immediately, Japan's Kyodo News agency reported, citing an unidentified oil industry official. (SNIP) Iran has already taken other measures to reduce its dependence on the U.S. currency. Earlier this year, Tehran announced it had begun pulling its foreign currency accounts out of European banks to...

Beginning in 2003, Iran began demanding oil payment in euros, not dollars, although the oil itself was still priced in U.S. currency. Now, Iran is seriously considering establishing an Iranian Oil Bourse, with the goal of competing with the New York Mercantile Exchange, NYMEX, and London's International Petroleum Exchange, IPE. Right now, the NYMEX and IPE use three oil "markers" to establish price – West Texas Intermediate crude, Norway Brent crude and the UAE Dubai crude. With the establishment of an Iranian Oil Bourse, Tehran wants to create a fourth oil marker, this one priced in the euro. In 2000,...