SADDAM TRADED IN PETROEUROS IN 2000. BY JUNE 2003, IRAQI OIL WAS ONCE MORE TRADING IN PETRODOLLARS
From the Bahrain News Agency : "Bako, May. 5, (BNA) Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced here on Friday that within two months, his country will base its oil accounts on the EURO.
"The Russian News Agency, Itar Tass, quoted Ahmadinejad as saying that Iran also intends to found a bourse at the Arabian Gulf's economic zone of Kish which will rely on the EURO currency in its accounts."
"This announcement portended competition would arise between the Iranian oil bourse and London�s International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), as well as the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). It should be noted that both the IPE and NYMEX are owned by U.S. corporations.
"The macroeconomic implications of a successful Iranian Bourse are noteworthy. Considering that Iran has switched to the euro for its oil payments from E.U. and ACU customers, it would be logical to assume the proposed Iranian Bourse will usher in a fourth crude oil marker denominated in the euro currency.
"Such a development would remove the main technical obstacle for a broad-based petroeuro system for international oil trades. From a purely economic and monetary perspective, a petroeuro system is a logical development given that the European Union imports more oil from OPEC producers than does the U.S., and the E.U. accounts for 45% of imports into the Middle East (2002 data).
"Acknowledging that many of the oil contracts for Iran and Saudi Arabia are linked to the United Kingdom's Brent crude marker, the Iranian bourse could create a significant shift in the flow of international commerce into the Middle East. If Iran�s bourse becomes a successful alternative for oil trades, it would challenge the hegemony currently enjoyed by the financial centers in both London (IPE) and New York (NYMEX)...."
From AltPressOnline.com :"In the fall of 2000, (Saddam Hussein) converted from the U.S. dollar to the Euro for Iraq's oil exports. If you wanted his oil, you had to pay in Euros, not greenbacks. For this, he paid dearly. Few Americans know that shortly after the Fall of Baghdad, Iraq quietly converted back to the dollar. A June 5th, 2003, article in the Financial Times, confirmed that Iraqi oil sales were, indeed, returning to the international markets in dollars, not Euros."Financial Times, June 5, 2003, (Oil sits at $30 a barrel) : "Iraq on Thursday stepped back into the international oil market for the first time since the war, offering 10m barrels of oil from its storage tanks for sale to the highest bidder.
"For some international companies it will be the first time in more than a year that they will do business directly with Iraq. Companies such as ExxonMobil of the US, shied away from directly buying Iraqi oil under the UN's oil-for-food programme as Washington stepped up its rhetoric against the Saddam Hussein regime.
"The tender, for which bids are due by June 10, switches the transaction back to dollars - the international currency of oil sales - despite the greenback's recent fall in value. Saddam Hussein in 2000 insisted Iraq's oil be sold for euros, a political move, but one that improved Iraq's recent earnings thanks to the rise in the value of the euro against the dollar."
