Iran to shun euro, dollar in oil deals

Iran is to switch to currencies other than
euros and dollars for payment for its oil exports

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=135932&sectionid=351020102

Iran is to use any currency in its oil transactions as the country wants to move away from receiving payments in dollars and euros, Iranian vice president says.

"We are free to choose any currency to sell our crude oil and this issue depends on Iran's interests," Mohammad Reza Rahimi said during a ceremony releasing a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Mehr news agency reported.

"The important issue is to exclude euros and dollars,” he added.

In 2009, Venezuela's president said that countries including Venezuela, Russia and Iran had proposed that the US dollar should be replaced as the currency used for oil trade.

"We've been talking about this in OPEC. Venezuela agrees and there are other countries, such as Iran and Russia, that also agree with this idea," Chavez told reporters in the central Bolivian region of Cochabamba.

Iran's Trade Promotion Organization in 2009 announced a project to completely exclude the US dollar from the country's foreign revenues and reserves.

Tehran is determined to find a substitute for the US dollar for the remaining oil revenues.

The constant declining value of the dollar and euro and persisting economic crisis in the US and EU has forced many countries to drop the currencies in favor those more stable.

Iran produced an estimated 3.74 million barrels of oil a day in June, Bloomberg data show.