The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse

[clarky003]

II. Iranian Oil Bourse

The Iranian government has finally developed the ultimate “nuclear” weapon that can swiftly destroy the financial system underpinning the American Empire. That weapon is the Iranian Oil Bourse slated to open in March 2006. It will be based on a euro-oil-trading mechanism that naturally implies payment for oil in Euro. In economic terms, this represents a much greater threat to the hegemony of the dollar than Saddam’s, because it will allow anyone willing either to buy or to sell oil for Euro to transact on the exchange, thus circumventing the U.S. dollar altogether. If so, then it is likely that almost everyone will eagerly adopt this euro oil system:

· The Europeans will not have to buy and hold dollars in order to secure their payment for oil, but would instead pay with their own currencies. The adoption of the euro for oil transactions will provide the European currency with a reserve status that will benefit the European at the expense of the Americans.

· The Chinese and the Japanese will be especially eager to adopt the new exchange, because it will allow them to drastically lower their enormous dollar reserves and diversify with Euros, thus protecting themselves against the depreciation of the dollar. One portion of their dollars they will still want to hold onto; a second portion of their dollar holdings they may decide to dump outright; a third portion of their dollars they will decide to use up for future payments without replenishing those dollar holdings, but building up instead their euro reserves.

· The Russians have inherent economic interest in adopting the Euro – the bulk of their trade is with European countries, with oil-exporting countries, with China, and with Japan. Adoption of the Euro will immediately take care of the first two blocs, and will over time facilitate trade with China and Japan. Also, the Russians seemingly detest holding depreciating dollars, for they have recently found a new religion with gold. Russians have also revived their nationalism, and if embracing the Euro will stab the Americans, they will gladly do it and smugly watch the Americans bleed.

· The Arab oil-exporting countries will eagerly adopt the Euro as a means of diversifying against rising mountains of depreciating dollars. Just like the Russians, their trade is mostly with European countries, and therefore will prefer the European currency both for its stability and for avoiding currency risk, not to mention their jihad against the Infidel Enemy.

Only the British will find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They have had a strategic partnership with the U.S. forever, but have also had their natural pull from Europe. So far, they have had many reasons to stick with the winner. However, when they see their century-old partner falling, will they firmly stand behind him or will they deliver the coup de grace? Still, we should not forget that currently the two leading oil exchanges are the New York’s NYMEX and the London’s International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), even though both of them are effectively owned by the Americans. It seems more likely that the British will have to go down with the sinking ship, for otherwise they will be shooting themselves in the foot by hurting their own London IPE interests. It is here noteworthy that for all the rhetoric about the reasons for the surviving British Pound, the British most likely did not adopt the Euro namely because the Americans must have pressured them not to: otherwise the London IPE would have had to switch to Euros, thus mortally wounding the dollar and their strategic partner.

At any rate, no matter what the British decide, should the Iranian Oil Bourse accelerate, the interests that matter—those of Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, Russians, and Arabs—will eagerly adopt the Euro, thus sealing the fate of the dollar. Americans cannot allow this to happen, and if necessary, will use a vast array of strategies to halt or hobble the operation’s exchange

whole article: http://www.energybulletin.net/12125.html

Interesting read, and pretty scary.

 

[CptStern]

interesting:

At any rate, no matter what the British decide, should the Iranian Oil Bourse accelerate, the interests that matter—those of Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, Russians, and Arabs—will eagerly adopt the Euro, thus sealing the fate of the dollar. Americans cannot allow this to happen, and if necessary, will use a vast array of strategies to halt or hobble the operation’s exchange:

· Sabotaging the Exchange—this could be a computer virus, network, communications, or server attack, various server security breaches, or a 9-11-type attack on main and backup facilities.

· Coup d’état—this is by far the best long-term strategy available to the Americans.

· Negotiating Acceptable Terms & Limitations—this is another excellent solution to the Americans. Of course, a government coup is clearly the preferred strategy, for it will ensure that the exchange does not operate at all and does not threaten American interests. However, if an attempted sabotage or coup d’etat fails, then negotiation is clearly the second-best available option.

· Joint U.N. War Resolution—this will be, no doubt, hard to secure given the interests of all other member-states of the Security Council. Feverish rhetoric about Iranians developing nuclear weapons undoubtedly serves to prepare this course of action.

· Unilateral Nuclear Strike—this is a terrible strategic choice for all the reasons associated with the next strategy, the Unilateral Total War. The Americans will likely use Israel to do their dirty nuclear job.

· Unilateral Total War—this is obviously the worst strategic choice. First, the U.S. military resources have been already depleted with two wars. Secondly, the Americans will further alienate other powerful nations. Third, major dollar-holding countries may decide to quietly retaliate by dumping their own mountains of dollars, thus preventing the U.S. from further financing its militant ambitions. Finally, Iran has strategic alliances with other powerful nations that may trigger their involvement in war; Iran reputedly has such alliance with China, India, and Russia, known as the Shanghai Cooperative Group, a.k.a. Shanghai Coop and a separate pact with Syria

also says a lot about iraq

 

[SAJ]

This oil bourse is a bit behind schedule isnt it ?
From what I have read over the last couple of years, the bourse was due to open in july of this year and yet there has been only silence on the matter since about march.

I guess someone in the Iranian government noticed what kind of response the bourse would garner from the US or a proxy.



ps; Funny you should mention Iraq in this context, they moved some of their oil trade to euros in november 2000.
Look how that turned out.

 

[MjM]

Yea America is fuct ... either that or Iran's fuct ... or the alien tech from Area 51 will be comercialised and we will finally have flying cars runnng on water. The future looks bright.

 

[Gray Fox]

This is could be bad, very bad. This will create a magic checkbook for the euro states which they would not be keen on losing just like with the US now.

 

[Rupertvdb]

This sounds like a very disruptive turn of events. Iran is attempting to create division in the West and sour relations with the Far East with this policy. Although I do not agree with the extent of American hegemony I think that attempts by middle-eastern oil rich nations to disrupt the global economy through aggressive influence on the market is disgusting.

 

[clarky003]

you can look at it that way if you want, but thats distorting it a bit. It's merely a competing currencey, the reason why it is such a big problem is because it threatens to knock the American economy off the top of the pedistal and possibly even collapse it. But that seems to be partly down to bad management within the American government.

In all fairness if it's easier and more economically viable for european countries to use the euro for their energy resources and economies then they should have that choice available if you truely believe in democracey.

The picture you get from this is more along the lines of America using its present status to dictate what other countries can and can't do economically.

 

[Gray Fox]

This is good for the US, they will finally have to get their economic policy straight, not more overspending, they are going to have to deal with the same economic truths the rest of have been dealing with.

But why isn't it possible to make an Oil currency that is just there for purchasing of oil, that is independent of any other currency of any country.

Or why doesn't every nation simply sell oil in their own currency, like if you buy Venezuelan oil you have to buy their currency and if you want to buy in Iran you use their currency.

 

[Rupertvdb]

Because using a single currency, like the dollar, means that the market is more stable. If every currency was using then the price of oil would be affected by far more factors than it at the moment. A single currency market makes life for everyone a lot easier.
The problem I have with the idea of this shift in currency is not the fact that it harms American interests but that it could well be a part of a larger Iranian policy of global disruption.

edit: I am also still dubious about the Euro, it's still a fledgling currency that has been applied in a unique way (international currency replacement) and how this shall effect global economics has still not been fully realised.

 

[Raziaar]

I've never been too attached to the dollar. I've always hated it since I never had very much of it. It gave itself up freely to everybody but me. Whore.