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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CalculatedRisk who wrote (70274)	6/8/2006 6:13:21 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 361009

The Russian Oil Bourse is open for business: "From now on, the price of Russian oil will not be determined only in New York" It's a subscription site, but DantesPeak liberated the article. (I think he's a journalist of some sort, or works in the field.) 6/8/06 Fed. News Serv. 09:15:00 Federal News Service (Russia) Copyright 2006 Federal News Service, Inc. All Rights Reserved. June 8, 2006 TV INTERVIEW WITH OLEG SAFONOV, PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN TRADING SYSTEM VESTI PLYUS TV RUSSIA NEWS PROGRAM WITH ERNEST MACKEVICIUS, 00:15, JUNE 8, 2006 Anchor: From now on, the price of Russian oil will not be determined only in New York. Trading in Russian "black gold" begins at the RTS in Moscow on Thursday, and what is, oil will be traded on rubles. The idea was first aired in the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly. The aim is to strengthen the authority of the Russian ruble and raise the price of Russian oil to the level of foreign oil. How feasible is this task? With me in the studio is President of the Russian Trading System Oleg Safonov. Leanan on Thursday June 08, 2006 at 2:50 PM EST ================================== fallout on Thursday June 08, 2006 at 3:59 PM EST Thanks for the heads up, Leanan. Looks like I was right and Jack gets to eat crow on this one. theoildrum.com On a related note.... Russian foreign exchange reserves are building up very fast, with an offical estimate made Tuesday that they will grow $5 to $6 billion (US) per month. But they don't plan on keeping all those dollars: "Russia shift fx reserves from dollar By Steve Johnson Published: June 8 2006 17:28 Russia became the latest country to shift a chunk of its central bank reserves out of the dollar, further eroding the standing of the greenback as the world's de facto reserve currency. Sergei Ignatyev, chairman of the central bank, said 50 per cent of its forex reserves were now held in dollars, with 40 per cent in euros and the remainder in sterling. Previously it was believed that just 25-30 per cent of the reserves were in euros, with virtually all the remainder in dollars." [ Parent ] fallout on Thursday June 08, 2006 at 4:09 PM EST And here's the kicker with the Russian oil bourse: Russian oil production is about 9.2 mb/d, of which about 5.4 mb/d is exported (appologies - numbers may be off slightly, +/-15%). The projected drop in demand for dollars/petrodollars at today's $70 per barrel would be approx: 5.4 mb/d X $70 per barrel = $378 million per day. 3) Assuming approx. 250 trading days per year = $94.5 billion USD per year in Russian petrodollar sales. So, we can deduct that ultimately (when Russia's oil is traded via this new exchange - assuming roubles are the unit of account and transaction currency) that customer's of Russia's oil exports (i.e. principally the EU) will not need those $94 billion petrodollars per year which they are currently using for those transactions, and will not be "buying". That's got to hurt. Far more so than any Iranian oil bourse ever could. theoildrum.com