There have been many rumors and hints for some time that at some point China might make a push to try and undercut the so called Petrodollar and steer the world away from the US dollar if possible. This new article in the Nikkei Asian Review says China is prepared to take a bold step forward in this plan soon. It will be interesting to see if this does materialize any time soon and what the US reaction to it may be. Below are some excerpts from the article.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"China is expected shortly to launch a crude oil futures contract priced in yuan and convertible into gold in what analysts say could be a game-changer for the industry.
The contract could become the most important Asia-based crude oil benchmark, given that China is the world's biggest oil importer. Crude oil is usually priced in relation to Brent or West Texas Intermediate futures, both denominated in U.S. dollars.
China's move will allow exporters such as Russia and Iran to circumvent U.S. sanctions by trading in yuan. To further entice trade, China says the yuan will be fully convertible into gold on exchanges in Shanghai and Hong Kong."
. . . . .
"If Saudi Arabia accepts yuan settlement for oil, Gave said, "this would go down like a lead balloon in Washington, where the U.S. Treasury would see this as a threat to the dollar's hegemony... and it is unlikely the U.S. would continue to approve modern weapon sales to Saudi and the embedded protection of the House of Saud [the kingdom's ruling family] that comes with them."
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Added notes: Dr. Stephen Leeb has been predicting for some time that something like this was in the works in China. It is certainly something to keep an eye on. Jim Rickards adds his comments on it here on his Twitter feed. Russia Insider runs this article and then another comment by Jim Rickards.
Added note 9-7-17: Sputnik News adds this story along these same lines
Added update 9-15-17: The Daily Coin publishes this article with email comments by gold researcher Koos Jansen about the article featured above in the Kikkei Asian Review. He questions the significance of the article and suggests that this may be much ado about nothing. Here are a couple of quotes by Koos from the Daily Coin article:
"In my opinion the story is misleading. The journalist in question from Nikkei Asian Review confirmed to me he used no official sources on the “oil benchmark backed by gold” story."
. . . .
"Surely China is working hard to promote their currency internationally. And they are eager to have more oil and gold priced and traded in renminbi. It’s also true that Russia and Iran, and other countries, like to use less dollars in international trade. But, in my very humble opinion, the Nikkei story should be taken with grain of salt."
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