From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A petrodollar is a United States dollar earned by a country through the sale of petroleum.^[1] The term was coined by Ibrahim Oweiss, a professor of economics at Georgetown University, in 1973. Oweiss felt there was a need for a word to describe the situation then occurring in oil producing, OPEC countries which were earning large amounts of money, in dollars, from oil production.

The term should not be confused with petrocurrency which refers to the currencies of petroleum exporting nations. However Canada's currency, the Canadian dollar, is sometimes referred to as a petrodollar in this context, as Canada is the largest oil exporter to use the term "dollar" for its currency.

Worldwide use of the U.S. dollar and the euro:      United States      External adopters of the US dollar      Currencies pegged to the US dollar - includes many oil producing countries      Currencies pegged to the US dollar w/ narrow band      Eurozone      External adopters of the euro      Currencies pegged to the euro      Currencies pegged to the euro w/ narrow band Note that the Belarusian ruble is pegged to the Euro, Russian Ruble and U.S. Dollar in a currency basket.

See also

• Petro
• Petrocurrency
• Petrodollar recycling
• Petrodollar warfare
• Petrobourse
• Petroeuro
• Petroruble
• Monetary hegemony

References

Further reading

1. The hidden hand of American hegemony : petrodollar recycling and international markets / David E. Spiro. Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, 1999. xiv, 177 p. ; 25 cm. LOC call
2. “The Choice of Currency for the Denomination of the Oil Bill," Speech given by Javad Yarjani, Head of OPEC's Petroleum Market Analysis Dept, on The International Role of the Euro (Invited by the Spanish Minister of Economic Affairs during Spain's Presidency of the EU) (April 14, 2002, Oviedo, Spain) [1]
3. “Russia shifts to euro as foreign currency reserves soar,” AFP, June 9, 2003 [2]

External links

• PetroTalk.com Portal for petro related Articles, Discussion, Links and more
• Washington Report
• Petrodollar or Petroeuro? A new source of global conflict, by Cóilín Nunan
• Petrodollar Theories of the War
• MP3 of interview with Carol Brightman author of "Total Insecurity: The Myth of American Omnipotence" in which Saddam Hussein's switch to the euro is discussed
• A Look At The World's Economy (December 2000) from CBS News
• Petrodollar Warfare Interview with William R. Clark with Jim Puplava of the Financial Sense Newshour
• IMF warns trade gap could bring down dollar
• Petrodollar Warfare: Dollars, Euros and the Upcoming Iranian Oil Bourse
• History of Oil video done by Robert Newman A vaudeville type story which talks about petrodollar story in the context of the history of oil
• The beginning of the end for petrodollar by Bulent Gokay, 15 March, 2006.
• Cost, abuse and danger of the dollar by Rudo de Ruijter, Mathaba News, March 7, 2007.
• In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading