"It's not oil, it's currency. sleep well."
It's about their desire to reduce the buying power of the US dollar by demanding all buyers pay in Euros dollars.
And this is but one small portion of the world's trade.
If all nations that export oil/gas along with OPEC decided to switch to Euro dollars as their means of payment then it would be a different story.
And countries, as well as the private sector who purchase oil/gas must use US dollars as their main means of payment for Iranian oil, tell Iran they will not go along with the deal then Iran is in a deep hole.
What I do see is their using it as a carrot/bribe to convince the Eurpoean nations to not side with the US as far as economical sanctions go.
Will the Russians, Chinese, South and Central Americans, Canada, exporting European nations (oil), Far East, Pacific Rim countries (all who export oil) go along with the Iranian wish to not accept US dollars in oil sales.
Iran can only push this stupidity so far. And surely growing numbers of the core Mullahs in Iran are becoming quite disenchanted with the policy changes of a few.
I do believe Mahmoud Ahmadinaejah and his promoters are going to find themselves out on the streets begging in the near future.
Along with his purging of old school Mullahs and other things like his demand to restructure where Iran keeps it's holdings etc., with of course his immediate master's approvals, he must be seen as a threat to the majority of Iranian of influence that do not go along with his mystical visions.
I believe we shall see him get the boot in the near future.
You comments provide hope where I find little or none. From your lips to God's ears.
There is such a demand for oil - artificial or otherwise - that removing Iran's production from the market will jeopardize the price and supply.
Though I will note that not too long ago Iran had a whole lot of unsold oil - buyers were trying to teach them a lesson - so they had to store in oil tankers at huge cost.
Unfortunately, the West cannot "control" Iran and its forthcoming Oil Exchange (Bourse) it is starting, because China, India and many of the former Soviet states, some with borders to Iran, require the oil and natural gas.
They will be happy to pay in other currrency, even more so to barter and with Iran still the second or third biggest producer, withdrawal of that quantity from the normal market and available only through Iran's new "Bourse" will bypass any efforts to resist a currency change.
Specially as initially till everything hits the fan, oil prducing countries that follow suit will make more money for their oil by selling in Euros. So they will not cooperate willingly with the West and Venezuela, possibly Nigeria and even Russia may add weight to the currency change.
Ex-KGB Putin would not mind making more money at the pleasant cost of seeing the USA go under. Russia is one those economies that could survive since it has little trade with the USA and can manufacture most of its needs (quality aside) from domestic capabilites and mining.
Also the Russian populace still has an ingrained submissiveness of the Communist era and would not rise up as would most European or Western countries against their governments. Futile though these actions might be since no government strongly involved in the global marketplace will have the resources to avoid or repair the crash of the dollar.