海湾产油国正计划终止使用美元进行石油交易

　　海湾产油国正计划终止使用美元进行石油交易

　　（综合讯）有报道指，海湾产油国正在与中俄日法等国家秘密会谈，商议以一揽子货币取代美元，作为石油交易结算货币。

　　路透社报道说，英国《独立报》著名驻中东记者菲斯克（Robert Fisk）引述来自海湾国家以及香港中资银行的消息，作出了上述报道。报道传出后，美元应声走软。

　　菲斯克表示，有关方案涉及原油的交易，做法是成立一揽子的结算货币，当中包括日元、人民币、欧元、黄金以及一种海湾地区国家拟推出的联合新货币。

　　该种新货币将为海湾合作委员会成员国的联合货币，有关成员国包括沙特、阿布扎比、科威特、卡塔尔等。

　　菲斯克指，参与上述秘密会谈的，包括中国、俄罗斯、日本、巴西的财金官员，另外法国也有参与；并指美国政府也知道有这些会议的存在，但华府并未发现其具体内容。

　　报导：阿拉伯产油国正计划终止使用美元进行石油交易

　　http://finance.QQ.com　 2009年10月06日 外汇宝网　　
　　英国独立报周二报道指出，阿拉伯产油国正与俄罗斯、中国、日本及法国进行密谈，商讨以一揽子货币取代美元进行石油交易结算。

　　该报称，谈判议题主要集中在货币篮子的选用上，包括人民币、日元、欧元以及黄金，谈判并提议在9年内将石油交易专职采用货币篮子。

　　英国独立报引述的匿名人士包括海湾各国以及中国银行业人士。

　　Potential end of dollar-based oil deals helps gold shine
　　http://www.marketwatch.com/story/potential-end-of-dollar-based-oil-deals-lifts-gold-2009-10-06
　　By Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch
　　TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- Growing speculation over the potential end to dollar-based trading in the oil market may be part of the reason gold prices have rallied beyond $1,020 an ounce to stand near their highest level in 18 months.
　　Gulf Arab states, along with China, Russia, Japan and France, are planning to put an end to dollar-based trading in the oil market, according to an exclusive report published Tuesday in the U.K. by The Independent.
　　"News on gold's expected future role in oil transactions between these trading partners has sent the price past $1,020," said Peter Spina, chief investment analyst at GoldSeek.com.
　　'News on gold's expected future role in oil transactions between these trading partners has sent the price past $1,020.'
　　Peter Spina, GoldSeek.com
　　In place of the greenback, the nations plan to use a basket of currencies, including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar, the report said.
　　The Independent said the plans were confirmed by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong.
　　The news is "absolutely bullish," for gold, said Peter Grandich, a metals writer at Agoracom. "I've not see gold's fundamentals this bullish in years."
　　The December contract for gold, the most-active on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, closed Monday with a gain of $13.50, or 1.3%, at $1,017.80 an ounce. By the afternoon in Tokyo, December gold was up $2.50 at $1,020.30 in electronic trading on Globex.
　　In mid-September, futures prices had climbed past $1,025 to hit a fresh 18-month high. The record intraday price for a front-month gold contract is $1,033.90, set on March 17, 2008.
　　Many analysts had attributed the gains Monday to higher demand in the face of more weakness in the U.S. dollar. See Metals Stocks.
　　But, as Spina pointed out, trading gold and other currencies in exchange for oil would "establish gold as a recognized medium of exchange, returning it a step closer to its role as money on a world trade system."
　　So the price of gold "should continue to find upward price pressures on this news," he said.
　　At the same time, "the domination of the U.S. dollar is further removed and really, it has been the pricing of oil in dollars for trade that has given it a huge boost in its demand globally," said Spina.
　　If the dollar is presently being used to transact oil between these nations, then they must use many billions of dollars to do so, he explained.
　　"If they will switch away from the U.S. buck, then all that demand disappears, the need for the U.S. dollar diminishes, and its value should reflect this," he said.
　　At last check, one U.S. dollar bought 89.07 Japanese yen, down from 89.49 yen in late New York Trading Monday. One euro bought $1.470, up from $1.466.
　　"Transacting in gold will boost demand [for gold] as the U.S. dollar's role diminishes," said Spina.
　　All in all, "this news is certainly bullish for gold's prospects for further use in international trade going forward," he said.
　　Myra P. Saefong is MarketWatch's assistant global markets editor, based in Tokyo.
　　The demise of the dollar
　　http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/the-demise-of-the-dollar-1798175.html
　　In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading
　　By Robert Fisk
　　Tuesday, 6 October 2009

　　Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars.
　　In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.
　　Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.
　　The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.
　　The Americans, who are aware the meetings have taken place – although they have not discovered the details – are sure to fight this international cabal which will include hitherto loyal allies Japan and the Gulf Arabs. Against the background to these currency meetings, Sun Bigan, China's former special envoy to the Middle East, has warned there is a risk of deepening divisions between China and the US over influence and oil in the Middle East. "Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable," he told the Asia and Africa Review. "We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security."
　　This sounds like a dangerous prediction of a future economic war between the US and China over Middle East oil – yet again turning the region's conflicts into a battle for great power supremacy. China uses more oil incrementally than the US because its growth is less energy efficient. The transitional currency in the move away from dollars, according to Chinese banking sources, may well be gold. An indication of the huge amounts involved can be gained from the wealth of Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar who together hold an estimated $2.1 trillion in dollar reserves.
　　The decline of American economic power linked to the current global recession was implicitly acknowledged by the World Bank president Robert Zoellick. "One of the legacies of this crisis may be a recognition of changed economic power relations," he said in Istanbul ahead of meetings this week of the IMF and World Bank. But it is China's extraordinary new financial power – along with past anger among oil-producing and oil-consuming nations at America's power to interfere in the international financial system – which has prompted the latest discussions involving the Gulf states.
　　Brazil has shown interest in collaborating in non-dollar oil payments, along with India. Indeed, China appears to be the most enthusiastic of all the financial powers involved, not least because of its enormous trade with the Middle East.
　　China imports 60 per cent of its oil, much of it from the Middle East and Russia. The Chinese have oil production concessions in Iraq – blocked by the US until this year – and since 2008 have held an $8bn agreement with Iran to develop refining capacity and gas resources. China has oil deals in Sudan (where it has substituted for US interests) and has been negotiating for oil concessions with Libya, where all such contracts are joint ventures.
　　Furthermore, Chinese exports to the region now account for no fewer than 10 per cent of the imports of every country in the Middle East, including a huge range of products from cars to weapon systems, food, clothes, even dolls. In a clear sign of China's growing financial muscle, the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, yesterday pleaded with Beijing to let the yuan appreciate against a sliding dollar and, by extension, loosen China's reliance on US monetary policy, to help rebalance the world economy and ease upward pressure on the euro.
　　Ever since the Bretton Woods agreements – the accords after the Second World War which bequeathed the architecture for the modern international financial system – America's trading partners have been left to cope with the impact of Washington's control and, in more recent years, the hegemony of the dollar as the dominant global reserve currency.
　　The Chinese believe, for example, that the Americans persuaded Britain to stay out of the euro in order to prevent an earlier move away from the dollar. But Chinese banking sources say their discussions have gone too far to be blocked now. "The Russians will eventually bring in the rouble to the basket of currencies," a prominent Hong Kong broker told The Independent. "The Brits are stuck in the middle and will come into the euro. They have no choice because they won't be able to use the US dollar."
　　Chinese financial sources believe President Barack Obama is too busy fixing the US economy to concentrate on the extraordinary implications of the transition from the dollar in nine years' time. The current deadline for the currency transition is 2018.
　　The US discussed the trend briefly at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh; the Chinese Central Bank governor and other officials have been worrying aloud about the dollar for years. Their problem is that much of their national wealth is tied up in dollar assets.
　　"These plans will change the face of international financial transactions," one Chinese banker said. "America and Britain must be very worried. You will know how worried by the thunder of denials this news will generate."
　　Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars. Bankers remember, of course, what happened to the last Middle East oil producer to sell its oil in euros rather than dollars. A few months after Saddam Hussein trumpeted his decision, the Americans and British invaded Iraq.