The Nail In
The Petrodollar Coffin
Gazprom Begins Accepting Payment For Oil In Ruble,
Yuan
By Tyler Durden
August 29, 2014 "ICH"
- "Zero
Hedge" - -Several
months ago, when
Russia announced the much anticipated "Holy
Grail" energy deal with China, some were
disappointed that despite this symbolic agreement
meant to break the petrodollar's stranglehold on the
rest of the world, neither Russia nor China
announced payment terms to be in anything but
dollars. In doing so they admitted that while both
nations are eager to move away from a US Dollar
reserve currency, neither is yet able to provide an
alternative.
This
changed in late June when first Gazprom's CFO
announced the gas giant was ready to settle China
contracts in Yuan or Rubles, and at the same time
the People's Bank of China announced that its
Assistant Governor Jin Qi and Russian central bank
Deputy Chairman Dmitry Skobelkin held a meeting in
which they discussed cooperating on project and
trade financing using local currencies. The meeting
discussed cooperation in bank card, insurance and
financial supervision sectors.
And yet,
while both sides declared their operational
readiness and eagerness to bypass the dollar
entirely, such plans remained purely in the arena of
monetary foreplay and the long awaited first shot
across the Petrodollar bow was absent.
Until now.
According
to Russia's
RIA Novosti, citing business daily Kommersant,
Gazprom Neft has agreed to export 80,000 tons of oil
from Novoportovskoye field in the Arctic; it
will accept payment in rubles,
and will
also deliver oil via the Eastern Siberia-Pacific
Ocean pipeline (ESPO), accepting payment in Chinese
yuan for the transfers. Meaning
Russia will export energy to either Europe or China,
and receive payment in either Rubles or Yuan, in
effect making the two currencies equivalent as far
as the Eurasian axis is concerned, but most
importantly, transact completely away from the US
dollar thus, finally putin'(sic) in action the move
for a Petrodollar-free world.
More on
this long awaited first nail in the petrodollar
coffin
from RIA:
The
Russian government and several of the country’s
largest exporters have widely discussed the
possibility of accepting payments in rubles for
oil exports. Last week, Russia began to ship oil
from the Novoportovskoye field to Europe by sea.
Two oil tankers are expected to arrive in Europe
in September.
According to Kommersant, the payment for
these shipments will be received in rubles.
Gazprom Neft will not only accept
payments in rubles; subsequent transfers via the
ESPO may be paid for in yuan, the newspaper
reported.
According to the newspaper, the change in
currency was made because of the Western
sanctions against Russia.
As a protective measure, Russia
decided to avoid making its payments in US
dollars, which
can be tracked and controlled by the United
States government, Kommersant reported.
"Protective
measure" meaning that it was the US which managed to
Plaxico itself by pushing Russia to transact away
from the US Dollar, in the process showing the world
it can be done, and slamming the first nail in the
petrodollar's coffin.
This
is not surprising to anyone who has been following
our forecast of the next steps in the transition
from the Petrodollar to the Gas-O-Yuan.
Recall from April:
The New
New Normal flow of
funds:
-
Gazprom delivering gas to China.
-
China Gazprom paying in Yuan (convertible
into Rubles)
-
Gazprom funding
itself increasingly in Yuan.
-
Russia buying Chinese goods and services in
Yuan (convertible into Rubles)
And all
of this with the US banker cartel completely
disintermediated courtesy of the glaring absence
of the USD in any of the above listed steps, or
as some may call it:
from the Petrodollar to the Gas-o-yuan
(something
40 central banks have already figured out...
just not the Fed).
Still
confused? Then read "90%
Of Gazprom Clients Have "De-Dollarized", Will
Transact In Euro & Renminbi" for just how
Gazprom set the stage for the day it finally would
push the button to skip the dollar entirely.
Which it just did.
In
conclusion we will merely say what we
have said previously, and it touches on what
will be the most remarkable aspect of Obama's
legacy, because while the hypocrite "progressive"
president who even his own people have accused of
being a "brown-faced
Clinton" after selling out to Wall Street and
totally wrecking US foreign policy abroad, is
already the worst president in a century of US
history according to public polls, the fitting
epitaph will come when the president's policies put
an end to dollar hegemony and end the reserve
currency status of the dollar once and for all,
thereby starting the rapid, and uncontrolled,
collapse of the US empire. To wit:
In retrospect it will be very fitting that the
crowning legacy of Obama's disastrous reign,
both domestically and certainly internationally,
will be to force
the world's key ascendent superpowers (we
certainly don't envision broke, insolvent Europe
among them) to drop the Petrodollar and end the
reserve status of the US currency.
As of this
moment, both Russia and China have shown not on that
it can be done, but it is
done. Expect everyone to jump onboard the
new superpower axis bandwagon soon enough.
See also
Two experts warn market
correction could total 60%: CNBC Video
: This crash will be precipitated, he said, by a
disillusionment with the Federal Reserve's
"confidence game," which will then see inflation
rise, and the Fed scramble to raise rates. At that
point, Tice added, "the Fed starts to lose control." |