Iran Stops Accepting U.S. Dollars for Oil

RIA Novosti - Iran stops accepting U.S. dollars for oil

Iran has stopped selling its oil for U.S. dollars, the Iranian ISNA news agency said on Saturday, citing the country's oil minister.

"In line with a policy of selling crude oil in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, the sale of our country's oil in U.S. dollars has been completely eliminated," ISNA reported Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari as saying.

Other related posts:

China Shifts to Euros for Iran Oil

Iran Replacing Dollar

Canadian Dollar at Parity with U.S. Dollar

1 U.S. dollar = 1.00085 Canadian dollars

http://www.xe.com

Euro at New High Against U.S. Dollar

AP - Euro Hits New High Against U.S. Dollar

The euro shot to an all-time high against the U.S. dollar Tuesday on concerns about the American economy that were fueled by discouraging growth forecasts from key U.S. retailers and homebuilders.

The British pound, which has been trading around 26-year highs against the dollar, briefly touched $2.0273 after reports showed British consumer prices were rising at a faster pace than the target set by the Bank of England.

The euro hit a new record of $1.3738 Tuesday, its highest level against the dollar since the 13-nation currency started trading in 1999, before retreating to $1.3729. That was still above the euro's previous high of $1.3682 reached on April 27 and the $1.3623 it bought late Monday in New York.

"The dollar is a basket case," said Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital Inc. "We are going to pay the piper for years of having the underlying fundamentals of our economy disintegrate beneath our feet."

Given the state of the U.S. economy, he said, the dollar could continue to fall in the coming years against the euro, to $2.50 or even $3.

My previous posts about the euro and U.S. dollar:

Iran Replacing Dollar

The Euro

Dollar Down, Gold Up

Euro Displaced Dollar In Bond Markets

China Shifts to Euros for Iran Oil

China Shifts to Euros for Iran Oil

Reuters - China shifts to euros for Iran oil

China's state-run Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp, the biggest buyer of Iranian crude worldwide, began paying for its oil in euros late last year as Tehran moves to diversify its foreign reserves away from U.S. dollars.

The Chinese firm, which buys more than a tenth of exports from the world's fourth-largest crude producer, has changed the payment currency for the bulk of its roughly 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) contract, Beijing-based sources said.

Japanese refiners who buy about 500,000 bpd of Iranian crude, nearly a quarter of Iran's 2.2 million-bpd shipments, continue to pay in dollars but are willing to shift to yen if asked, industry sources and officials said separately.

Iranian officials have said for months that more than half the OPEC member's customers switched their payment currency away from the dollar as Tehran seeks to diversify its reserves, but news of the Zhenrong change is the first outside confirmation.