Iran
Drops Dollar From Oil Deals
By
AFP
11 December,
2007
AFP
TEHRAN
(AFP) — Major crude producer Iran has completely stopped
carrying out its oil transactions in dollars, Oil Minister Gholam Hossein
Nozari said on Saturday, labelling the greenback an "unreliable"
currency.
"At
the moment, selling oil in dollars has been completely halted, in line
with the policy of selling crude in non-dollar currencies," Nozari
was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
"The
dollar is an unreliable currency, considering its devaluation and the
oil exporters' losses," he added.
The world's
fourth largest oil exporter, Iran has massively reduced its dependence
on the dollar over the past year in the face of US pressures on its
financial system and the fall in the dollar.
Nozari did
not specify in which currencies Iran was now being paid. In the past,
officials have said most oil income was in euros, with a significant
percentage in yen.
Japan, which
purchases 20 percent of Iran's crude oil, has recently agreed to pay
for the crude oil in yen, officials have said. The UAE dirham has also
been mooted as a possible payment currency.
Iran has
in the past months been whittling down the proportion of dollars in
its oil revenue income. Officials in October said that dollars accounted
for only 15 percent of payments and predicted the amount would fall
to zero.
However,
the oil income is still being booked in dollars.
The United
States has in recent months successfully encouraged major European and
Asian banks to cut their dealings with Iran in a bid to make the Islamic
republic give way on its controversial nuclear programme.
Washington
has also blacklisted major Iranian banks for alleged support of terrorism
and seeking nuclear weapons, charges denied by Tehran.
Iran has
also reduced its dollar assets held in foreign banks and urged OPEC
to take collective action to price oil in other currencies such as the
euro, instead of the US currency which is used across the world at present.
The fall
of the dollar, which has weakened considerably against the euro and
other currencies in the past 12 months, has affected the revenues of
OPEC members because most of them price and sell their oil exports in
the US currency.
Copyright
© 2007 AFP
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