Dollar Danger: Iranian Oil Bourse Steps Up Activities

As Obamacare dominates the American lamestream media, the fundamentallly most important news for oil and the dollar was to be found first in the Tehran News on October 27. The Iranian Oil Bourse was finally inaugurated last Monday, after such a statement was already made in February 2008, leaving room for confusion.
According to the Tehran Times

"The Iranian Oil Bourse was inaugurated on Monday in the Persian Gulf island of Kish as a venue to export oil and petrochemical products.
National Petrochemical Company's Managing Director Adel Nejad-Salim said in the opening ceremony that all petrochemical products will be gradually offered on the market, IRNA news agency reported.
The oil bourse is intended as an exchange market for petroleum, gas, and petrochemicals in various currencies, primarily the euro and Iranian rial, and a basket of other major currencies.
On February 4, 2008 the Iranian Cabinet approved the creation of the oil bourse in two stages - first for crude and second for oil byproducts transactions.
Iran, having the world’s second largest gas reserves and third largest oil reserves, is trying to play a more active role in oil and petrochemical transactions in international markets."

These reports show that Iran is far slower progressing in its strategy to shift its oil trade from Federal Reserve Notes (FRN) to other currencies, predominantly the Euro. Iran has been selling oil in long term contracts to European buyers in Euros. Read this report from April 2006 on the Iranian Oil Bourse here that described a much more dynamic timeline.
OPEC members are required to settle oil trades in FRNs but most member states recognize the vulnewrable position of FRNs as the world's reserve currency. Any decrease in demand for FRNs will hurt the whole world - and there will be no painless way out of the current mega-giga-mess.