Ruská ropa za ruble
Rusko sa potichu pripravuje na obchod so svojou ropu v rubľoch, namiesto USD.
Russia, the world's second-largest oil-exporting nation after Saudi Arabia, has been quietly preparing to switch trading in Russian Ural Blend oil, the country's primary export, from the dollar to the ruble. But the change, if it comes, is still some time off, industry analysts and officials said.
The Russian effort began modestly this month, with trading in refined products for the domestic market. Still, the effort to squeeze the dollar out of Russian oil sales marks another project with swagger and ambition by the Kremlin, which has already wielded its energy wealth to assert influence in Eastern Europe and in former Soviet states.
Russia would like to change this practice, at least among its customers, as a means to elevate the importance of the ruble, a new source of national pride after gaining 30 percent against the dollar during the current oil boom.
A move away from the dollar, meanwhile, is more glum news for the United States.
During a speech on economic policy this month, Dmitry Medvedev, a deputy prime minister and the likely successor to President Vladimir Putin in elections on March 2, said Russia should seize opportunities created by the weak dollar.
"Today, the global economy is going through uneasy times," he said. "The role of the key reserve currencies is under review. And we must take advantage of it." He asserted that "the ruble will de facto become one of the regional reserve currencies."
Other oil-exporting countries, too, are chafing at dealing in the weakening dollar.
Iran, one of the largest oil-exporting nations, and no friend of the United States, has since 2005 striven to open a commodity exchange to trade oil in currencies other than the dollar. Iran's ambassador to Russia, discussing the two countries' interest in the idea, said Iran might choose rubles to free his country from "dollar slavery."
Private brokers will be allowed to trade in March; futures contracts will be introduced in April.
Nikolayev said no timeline had been established for trading for export on the exchange, which also handles grain, sugar, mineral fertilizer, cement and esoteric financial products like Russian government quotas for beef and pork imports - all in rubles.
"We are in Russia, and the currency is rubles, not euros, not dollars," he said. "We don't want to depend on the rise or fall of the dollar."
Zdroj: www.peakoil.com
01.03.2008