Iran stops selling oil for dollars, urges neighbors to follow suit
NICOSIA — Iran has halted crude oil sales in U.S. dollars.
Iran is the second largest producer in OPEC. Teheran has been pressuring
Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members to end their sales solely on the U.S.
dollar, and instead rely on a basket of currencies.
Officials said Teheran significantly reduced conducting oil sales in
dollars in 2007, Middle East Newsline reporte. They said by early 2008 Iran demands that consumers pay for
oil in euros or Japanese yen.
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"The dollar has totally been removed from Iran's oil transactions,"
Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, an official at the Iranian Oil Ministry, said. "We
have agreed with all of our crude oil customers to do our transactions in
non-dollar currencies."
Kuwait, the only Gulf Cooperation Council state, has already dropped its
peg to the dollar. Other GCC states blame inflation on the dollar peg.