(Story is below under my post)

I have indicated on numerous occasions that I believe these new non-dollar valuated oil bourses are very important in both political and economic terms. (To clarify, I mean "new" in that all of these bourses have come about in the last year or so)

Here is a list of the ones I am aware of (please make additions, corrections and clarifications if you are able.)

1) The UAE oil bourse is technically not new, their bourse has been up for years but it has only recently begun allowing trades to valuated in currencies other than the Greenback, most of recently it began allowing trades in Euros.

2) Russia's oil bourse (I need more info on this one)
I have heard it is now up and running and that it's trades are valuated in Rubles.

3) China's oil bourse
I believe their bourse that thus far has stuck with the dollar but has indicated their willingness to shift to the Euro the Yen or (less likely, to a basket of currencies) if the Dollar continues to slide.

4) Iran's oil bourse
It opened today Feb 17 2008 and details are in the story below.

5) The OPEC bourse
This oil bourse does not exist yet (and may never exist) but several members of OPEC (including of course Iran and Venezuela, but other key players too) have announced a working group to study the possibility of OPEC opening a member owned and member run bourse. Initial reports of Saudi objection have softened as it has become clear that support for the idea in Saudi Arabi is actually quite strong.

6) Venezuela (Chavez) has been pushing for a South American based oil bourse (most likely to be based in Brazil, and valuated in the Brazilian Real or possibly the Euro) This idea seems to get passed around at every trade meeting they have down there but I have heard no story that indicates it is anything more than a rumor for now.

So despite all the fuss about Iran's bourse I have never understood why there was so much fuss about Iran's bourse when there are already others in operation and more on the way.

All one could say for sure that if you are an oil trader at the NYMEX or ICE your job was likely in danger because of the competition.

Anyhow, since I am one that has vociferously predicted that all hell would break loose if and when Iran's bourse did open (and now it has, but no war has started) so guess I deserve to have my feet held to the fire a bit now.

So have fun saying I told you so.

Nevertheless, I still think we should have our eyes on this business with all these foreign owned oil bourses popping up all over the world.

They wouldn't be doing it if they didn't think there was some profit in it for them.


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http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/...N-Iran-Oil.php

Iran launches oil products bourse with petrochemical deal
The Associated Press
Published: February 17, 2008

TEHRAN, Iran: Iran established its first oil products bourse Sunday in a free trade zone on the Persian Gulf Island of Kish, the country's oil ministry said.

A statement posted on the ministry's Web site said 100 tons of polyethylene consignment was traded at the market's opening on the island, which houses the offices of about 100 Iranian and foreign oil companies.

Oil and petrochemical products will be traded in Iranian Rials, as well as all other hard currencies, the statement quoted Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari as saying. About 20 brokers are already active in the market, it said.

"The bourse provides an economic opportunity for Iranians, other countries and foreign customers," Nozari was quoted as saying.

Iran produces more than 20 million tons of petrochemical products per year.
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Iran has already registered for another oil bourse, in which it has said it hopes to trade oil in Euros instead of dollars, to reduce any American influence over the Islamic Republic's economy.

A bourse official, Mahdi Karbasian, told the IRNA official news agency that such an oil market would begin operating within the next year.

While most oil markets are traded in U.S. dollars, Iran first floated the idea of trading oil in Euros in the early 2000s during the tenure of reformist president Mohammad Khatami. It gained new life after the nationalist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected in 2005.

As the fourth largest oil producer in the world, Iran has a measure of influence over international oil markets. The country ranks second for output among OPEC Countries, and controls about 5 percent of the global oil supply.

Tehran also partially controls the Persian Gulf's Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world's oil supply must pass.

Iran has sought to wield its oil resources as a bargaining tool in its ongoing standoff with the West over its nuclear program.

The U.N. Security Council is considering imposing a third set of sanctions on Iran for defying a request to halt uranium enrichment. But Tehran has expressed doubt that the world body would impose sanctions on the country's oil sector, because such a move would likely drive global oil prices higher.

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It must be troubling to those for whom authority is the only truth when confronted by those for whom truth is the only authority.

Fantastic.

Dollar Hegemony is being undermined, what options do we really have?

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'May no obstacles arise on the path of enlightenment!
May the enlightened intention of Those Gone to Bliss, past, present and future, be realised,
May I neither be bewildered in migratory existence
Nor I lulled by the solitary quiescence [of nirvana]!
But may I liberate beings throughout the expanse of space!'

- Tibetan Book of the Dead by Padmasambhava

(this has nothing to do with your post, but you might be interested)

If an Asian market does develop in the future, and the dollar hegemony is reducing - which means international support of American business is being more than questioned, what of another American depression in the world state of a dual market?
The first market slows, the other is invested, the first becomes devoid of investment support, economic recovery would be nearly impossible without a 'jump start' in a major war.

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"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." - Alexander Pope

So Iran has starting an oil bourse and it has stated explicitly in their own national press releases that they will use the bourse to "undermine US dollar hegemony" and now any post about the subject is to be labeled a "conspiracy theory?"

I can understand how one might not like this turn of events. I don't like it either, but the fact is no law on Earth ever gave the US the right to expect that other countries would buy and sell oil almost exclusively in US Dollars. So I can't see why we should be too surprised (or too upset) when the rest of the world up and decides to do something else.

If they want to buy and sell in drachmas, or sea shells, or camel bones and do so directly without the intervention of US banks it is really none of our business.

What is interesting to me is not that this thread got moved (it had been sitting dead a little while after all) no what is interesting is where the thread got moved to. I can understand moving the thread to the business section but to move it to the "conspiracy theory" section, that is just too rich.

I made a legitimate post about the real world FACT that all these countries have been starting up oil bourses in just in the past couple years and the moderator decides that it is a "conspiracy theory."

Why?

I think it shows a bias on the part of the editorial staff.

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It must be troubling to those for whom authority is the only truth when confronted by those for whom truth is the only authority.

Greed - Could you give a little history, or overview on the bourses for us. I haven't been able to find much on the subject.

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"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." - Alexander Pope