Venezuela Begins Publishing Oil Basket Price In Yuan

Source: Venezuela Begins Publishing Oil Basket Price In Yuan | Zero Hedge

http://www.zerohedge.com

by Tyler Durden

Sep 15, 2017

Two days after the WSJ confirmed Maduro’s earlier threat that he would stop accepting US Dollars as payment for crude oil imports, Venezuela has done just that.

As a reminder, and as we reported previously, in an effort to circumvent U.S. sanctions, Venezuela told oil traders that it will no longer receive or send payments in dollars. As a result, oil traders who export Venezuelan crude or import oil products into the country have begun converting their invoices to euros.

Furthermore, Venezuela’s state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA (whose bankruptcy is fast approaching), told its private joint venture partners to open accounts in euros and to convert existing cash holdings into Europe’s main currency, said one project partner. The new payment policy hasn’t been publicly announced, but Vice President Tareck El Aissami, who has been blacklisted by the U.S., said Friday, “To fight against the economic blockade there will be a basket of currencies to liberate us from the dollar.”

Fast forward to today, when according to a statement on the Venezuela oil ministry, the country’s weekly crude oil and petroleum basket “will be published in Chinese Yuan” – oddly, not in Euros as the WSJ hinted – going forward. We can only assume that Venezuela avoided the European currency on concerns that Brussels may follow in D.C.’s footsteps and impose financial sanctions on the Maduro regime next. Which meant that the only “safe” currency to transact in, was that of the country’s two big sources of vendor (and commodity) financing: China and Russia. For now Venezuela has picked the former.

The ministry also unveiled a price of 306.26 Yuan per barrel for the week of Sept. 11-15, up 1.8% from the 300.91 in the previous week, saying “the more favorable outlook on world oil demand and reports of lower global production contributed to the strengthening of crude oil prices this week.”

As for the more relevant topic, Venezuela’s abdication of the US dollar, whether permanent or temporary – until the US finds a way to intervene and restore normalcy – Nomura debt analyst Siobhan Morden warned that “you can say whatever you want for your domestic propaganda and make it look like you’re retaliating against the U.S…. this political posturing will only be to their detriment.”

It remains to be seen if president Trump will use today’s official switch by Venezuela to a PetroYuan as justification for a more “aggressive” foreign policy posture.

* * *

Meanwhile, recall that the decision by the nation with the world’s largest proven oil reserves to eliminate the dollar, comes just days after China and Russia unveiled the latest Oil/Yuan/Gold triad at the latest BRICS conference.

 

 

“Russia shares the BRICS countries’ concerns over the unfairness of the global financial and economic architecture, which does not give due regard to the growing weight of the emerging economies. We are ready to work together with our partners to promote international financial regulation reforms and to overcome the excessive domination of the limited number of reserve currencies.”

“To overcome the excessive domination of the limited number of reserve currencies” is the politest way of stating what the BRICS have been discussing for years now; how to bypass the US dollar, as well as the petrodollar. Clearly, Beijing is ready to step up the game. Soon China will launch a crude oil futures contract priced in yuan and convertible into gold.

This means that Russia – as well as Iran, the other key node of Eurasia integration – may bypass US sanctions by trading energy in their own currencies, or in yuan. Inbuilt in the move is a true Chinese win-win; the yuan will be fully convertible into gold on both the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges.

The new triad of oil, yuan and gold is actually a win-win-win. No problem at all if energy providers prefer to be paid in physical gold instead of yuan. The key message is the US dollar being bypassed.

To promote their strategic partnership, Russia and China  – via the Russian Central Bank and the People’s Bank of China – have been developing ruble-yuan swaps for quite a while now. Once that moves beyond the BRICS to aspiring “BRICS Plus” members and then all across the Global South, Washington’s reaction is bound to be nuclear (hopefully, not literally).

Washington’s strategic doctrine rules RC should not be allowed by any means to be preponderant along the Eurasian landmass. Yet what the BRICS have in store geo-economically does not concern only Eurasia – but the whole Global South.

Sections of the War Party in Washington bent on instrumentalizing  India against China – or against RC – may be in for a rude awakening. As much as the BRICS may be currently facing varied waves of economic turmoil, the daring long-term road map, way beyond the Xiamen Declaration, is very much in place.

*  *  *

Finally, having threatened China just this week with exclusion from SWIFT, we suspect Washington is rapidly running out of any great ally to sustain the petrodollar-driven hegemony (and implicitly the US war machine). So will calls for a Venezuelan invasion now commence, if for no other reason than to teach any other nation contemplating a similar move that it will simply not be allowed?

Advertisements

Petrodollar end looming as China and allies dump it in oil trading – Jim Rogers

Beijing has announced plans to start a crude oil futures contract priced in yuan and convertible into gold. The step might lead to the emergence of a new Asia-based crude oil benchmark to compete with Brent or West Texas Intermediate futures.

Source: Petrodollar end looming as China & allies dump it in oil trading – Jim Rogers — RT Business

RT Business

15 Sep, 2017

© Jason Lee / Reuters

 

Beijing has announced plans to start a crude oil futures contract priced in yuan and convertible into gold. The step might lead to the emergence of a new Asia-based crude oil benchmark to compete with Brent or West Texas Intermediate futures.

Read more

Venezuela ditches dollar for oil payments to dodge US penalties

RT talked to investing guru and financial commentator Jim Rogers to understand how much of a game changer this could be for an industry dominated by the dollar.

“This is just another step in that direction. Many people do not like using US dollars because if the US gets angry at you, they just set enormous pressure on you that can even get you out of business. China, Russia, and other countries understand this, and they are trying to move world trade and world finance away from that,” said the Jim Rogers.

As China is the world’s biggest crude buyer, the new contract may allow exporters to avoid US sanctions by trading oil in yuan. Such countries as Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Vietnam, China and many other Asian countries are interested in that, according to the expert.

The futures contract will allow participants to pay with gold or to convert yuan into gold without the necessity to keep money in Chinese assets or turn it into US dollars.

“The world has been moving that way. Iran will accept renminbi (yuan) from China now. The world is moving that way. China and Russia have currently swaps in rubles and renminbis. It is happening. But it is happening slowly. It takes a lot of time,” Rogers said.

The investor stressed the shift is not going to happen swiftly.

“In this case, there are so many people that actively want it, I would suspect that in less than ten years you will see a major shift into the trading of oil to Asia,” he said.

“When US dollar replaced the pound sterling, there was no one really going around trying to do it quickly. But now you have major economies: Russia, China, Iran and others – very much want this to happen. So, it will happen faster,” Rogers added.

Oil-rich Venezuela is abandoning the US petrodollar, plans to introduce new international payment system

What?  Venezuela sits on the largest amount of oil reserves in the world? It looks like it needs US freedom and democracy!

Source: Oil-rich Venezuela is abandoning the US petrodollar, plans to introduce new international payment system

theduran.com

by  Vladimir Rodzianko

September 8, 2017,

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced that he intends to liberate Venezuela from the negative effects stemming from the US dollar currency by introducing a new international payment system and an alternative currency basket.

 

In an address to a new legislative superbody, Maduro said:

“I am announcing that Venezuela intends to introduce a new international payment system and to create a currency basket for the liberation from the dollar and, [we intend] to free ourselves from the clutches of the dollar, the currency that is strangling our country.”

 

“If they pursue us with the dollar, we’ll use the Russian rouble, the yuan, yen, the Indian rupee, the euro,” Maduro said.

Maduro plans to use the weakest of two official foreign exchange regimes and a basket of currencies. Currently in Venezuela, one dollar buys 3,345 bolivars, according to the central bank. At the strongest official rate, one dollar buys just 10 bolivars, but on the black market the dollar fetches 20,193 bolivars. A thousand dollars of local currency bought when Maduro came to power in 2013 would now only be worth $1.20. 

On August 25, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing financial sanctions on the Venezuelan government. The White House said the measures were “carefully calibrated” to put financial pressure on Maduro’s government.

Its important to note that Venezuela sits on the largest amount of oil reserves in the world:

Reserves amounts are listed in millions of barrels (MMbbl):

The United States previously threatened to sanction anyone involved with the Constituent Assembly, which was elected on July 30.

The Constituent Assembly is a legislative body, which has the power to amend Venezuela’s constitution. The election of the assembly took place amid mass, deadly protests across the country. Venezuelan opposition, as well as the European Union and the United States, have refused to recognize the body’s legitimacy.

Maduro says this is part of an “economic war” waged by the opposition and Washington, aimed at his ouster.

“This is the fight against the economic blockade of the imperial sanctions of (U.S. President Donald) Trump,” said Maduro.

Will Venezuela and Nicolas Maduro share the same fate as Iraq and Saddam Hussein?

Nations Must Reject Venezuela Invasion Plans at UN Session

As if Americans, or Israelis, listen to anything the UN says. Another fake war is coming courtesy of the Barbaric States of Dumbmerica. Why can’t the USA live and let live? Go home Yankees and take your troops home while doing it. Barbarians.

Source: Nations Must Reject Venezuela Invasion Plans at UN Session | Opinion | teleSUR English

http://www.telesurtv.net

By: Earl Bousquet

Aug 18, 2017

The 72nd Regular Session of the U.N. General Assembly will convene on Sept. 12, 2017. | Photo: Reuters

Venezuela is most likely headed for the U.N. Security Council’s agenda as the White House seeks to ratchet-up global action.

Having failed to excite or influence Latin American and Caribbean neighbors to gang-up collectively against Caracas, Washington is now placing its bets on mobilizing international action through the United Nations ahead of very possibly marching U.S. troops in urgent fury into Venezuela.

OPINION:
Uncle Sam to Choose Where Next to Stick His Nose

Following the success of previous military invasions with ‘Urgent Fury’ in Grenada in 1983 and “Desert Storm” in Iraq, persistent efforts in recent years to get the Organization of American States, OAS, to join in a U.S.-led invasion march against founder-member Venezuela have failed.

Since the advent of former President Hugo Chavez and his “Bolivarian Socialism” declarations and policy initiatives in 1998, successive administrations led by his United Socialist Party of Venezuela, PSUV, have come under continuing pressure from Washington.

Successive U.S. ambassadors in Caracas have openly supported anti-Chavez and now anti-President Nicolas Maduro policies while embracing the opposition and supporting their actions with both material assistance and political and economic sanctions against the PSUV governments.

Badly burnt over Grenada and Iraq, Latin American and Caribbean nations, as well as other similar groupings of developing states worldwide, have been very cautious about quickly, overly and overtly supporting direct U.S. intervention in countries.

The mainly English-speaking Caribbean Community, Caricom, has repeatedly expressed its opposition to foreign intervention in Venezuela’s internal affairs and support for a peaceful, political solution to the country’s problems.

The smaller Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, OECS, has also supported a peaceful, negotiated solution.

At the wider regional level, while the Mercosur group has shut its doors on Caracas, the majority of Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, ALBA, and PetroCaribe member-states support Venezuela’s right to determine its internal affairs without outside intrusion.

https://videosenglish.telesurtv.net/player/673084/thousands-march-in-venezuela-against-trump-s-military-threats/?aspectratio=auto

The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, CELAC, and the Association of Caribbean States, ACS, have not yet become major players in the current dispute, but when they eventually do, there is no doubt they will also oppose external intervention.

Having failed to stop the peaceful and credible election of the National Constituent Assembly, NCA, on July 30, Washington has now declared it an exercise to lead Venezuela on “a path of dictatorship,” according to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in neighboring Colombia last weekend.

Rejecting the transparent vote for the ANC by over 40 percent of the electorate — a greater comparative amount of voters than in any recent U.S. presidential or legislative elections — Washington opted to criminalize the ANC and punish people and entities doing business with it.

OPINION:
Venezuela Can Give US ‘Free and Fair Elections’ Lessons!

Now, having recently persuaded Peru to lead Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and others to take separate unilateral punitive action against Venezuela over the ANC, Washington’s next stop is the U.N., where the annual General Assembly starts in September.

Continue:

Nations Must Reject Venezuela Invasion Plans at UN Session | Opinion | teleSUR English

Venezuela’s long history of racism is coming back to haunt it

For all its faults, Chavismo has finally put marginalised Venezuelans at the centre of national culture – and many on the right still resent it.

Source: Venezuela’s long history of racism is coming back to haunt it

theconversation.com

Hazel Marsh

Lecturer in Latin American Studies, University of East Anglia

Aug 17, 2017

Over the last four months, hardly a day has gone by without news coverage of the political and economic crisis in Venezuela. At least 124 people have been killed, some by security forces, while participating in or accidentally encountering opposition-led street demonstrations.

The mainstream media narrative is of an increasingly authoritarian government repressing a series of popular uprisings in a desperate bid to hold onto power. Political leaders in the UK, the US and other countries warn that President Nicolás Maduro is turning into a dictator.

But little has been said about the reported 49% to 80% of Venezuelans, both pro- and anti-Maduro, who are “in disagreement” with the radical opposition’s use of violence as a political tool. Not all who oppose Maduro support the radical opposition or want them in power.

While acknowledging that Venezuela’s political unrest “remains mostly confined to middle-class enclaves”, the authors of an article published in the Wall Street Journal suggested that many “poor Venezuelans” are just “too hungry” to march. But rejection of the radical opposition goes far deeper than this. It is rooted in profound historical concerns, not just political and economic, but also racial and cultural.

The ugly truth

Before Hugo Chávez was elected in 1998, Venezuela attracted little international attention. It was seen as exceptionally stable by Latin American standards, and was best known for its beauty queens and its oil. Those national icons represent the racial and cultural politics that are driving today’s unrest.

Let’s start with the beauty queens. While a majority of Venezuelans identify as black, indigenous or mestizo (mixed-race), the country’s beauty queens invariably conform to white beauty ideals. The organiser of the country’s most important beauty pageant has stated that black women are not pretty because their noses are “too wide” and their lips “too thick”. Afro hair is commonly referred to as pelo malo – “bad hair”.

The Miss Venezuela beauty pageant speaks for itself. EPA/Miguel Gutierrez

These aesthetic values have political, cultural and economic counterparts. In the mid-19th century, several Latin American governments implemented “whitening” policies along the ideological lines laid out in books such as Facundo: Civilisation and Barbarism. Large scale European migration was promoted for the “improvement” of “the race”. In Venezuela, these policies continued until the 1940s.

This belief in the natural superiority of Europeans was also evident in the economically crucial, foreign-owned oil sector. Professionals and middle managers were white Venezuelans, but labourers were recruited from black and mixed-race sectors. By the time oil was nationalised in 1976, the Venezuelan middle class it helped to create had come to identify with US-style political, cultural and consumer patterns. For these Venezuelans, dubbed “miameros” because of their frequent shopping trips to Miami, oil symbolised civilisation, while the black and mixed-race masses represented the perceived barbarism of the past.

But Venezuela’s apparent “exceptionalism” was an illusion. In the 1960s and 1970s, the “common sense” ideas of progress and modernity promulgated by the oil industry and backed by the government ran into trouble. Social tensions developed around the unequal access to oil profits, and strong currents of barrio and grassroots activism began to surge. The situation worsened in the 1980s as oil prices dropped and the bolívar currency was devalued.

In February 1989, the Caracazo uprisings broke out in anger at newly-imposed, right wing economic reforms. An ensuing military crackdown claimed the lives of more than 400 people, mainly from the barrios. To this day, poorer Venezuelans remember this state violence as an act carried out to protect the interests of the wealthy middle classes and their foreign allies. As a woman from the 22 de Enero barrio told me in 2008: “You never saw anybody on the right protesting against the shooting of us; [they] … never cried when we were shot.”

Barrio politics

In the early years of Hugo Chávez’s rise to power, right wing criticism of the government was frequently couched in racial and cultural terms. The private media portrayed government supporters as hordes of “monkeys” moved by base emotions and swayed by an authoritarian leader.

One anti-Chavista told me in 2005 that a president should be a “señor” who speaks English, and not someone from such a humble background that he only started wearing shoes at the age of eight. Chávez was not fit to be president, she elaborated, “because of his culture, the tiny bit he has … He wants us all to live like he used to live”. For anti-Chavistas, Chávez and his supporters in the barrios represented the perceived barbarism of the past, and this instilled fear in them.

Government supporters gather in Caracas. EPA/Cristian Hernandez

While the Chávez government attracted international attention for its economic and political programmes, it also addressed cultural injustices. Through new cultural policies and social programmes, such as Misión Cultura, Chavismo raised the symbolic status of the historically excluded poor and mixed-race masses. For the first time, previously marginalised people saw their history and cultural values, as they defined them, promoted by the government and included in official representations of the national cultural heritage.

These efforts were extremely powerful, and won the government deep support. As a barrio resident put it to me in 2008:

We have a sense of belonging now … This is the responsibility of all of us, not Chávez alone … he can’t do it without us.

The opposition protests that have flared up since Chávez first came to power need to be understood within this cultural and racial context. Radical sectors of the right wing opposition have repeatedly refused to accept the legitimacy of Chavismo and what it represents. In 2002, they helped organise both a short-lived US-backed coup and oil strikes meant to create chaos and bring the government down. The street demonstrations raging today are aimed at achieving regime change, but the opposition has not indicated what policies they would introduce and how they would deal with the country’s problems if they were in power.

Maduro’s popularity has fallen significantly this year, but many who have withdrawn their support for him feel alienated by the opposition’s anti-poor discourse. They fear that a return to the political right would reverse the gains made under Chavismo, and worse. Their fears are not theoretical; as observed by Gabriel Hetland of the State University of New York at Albany, the opposition has carried out “brutal attacks” directed at “black and brown men … and other people who look Chavista”.

The crisis in Venezuela is not simply a matter of left wing versus right wing political and economic systems. It is also rooted in competing ideas about racial and cultural worth. The ugly truth is that for some, it is still a matter of civilisation versus barbarism.

‘US hegemony has come to an end’: Bolivian FM rejects idea of intervention in Venezuela

“The hegemony of the Western world and the [US] empire has come to an end,” Mamani told RT.

Source: ‘US hegemony has come to an end’: Bolivian FM rejects idea of intervention in Venezuela — RT News

RT News

17 Aug, 2017

Bolivian Minister of Foreign Affairs Fernando Huanacuni Mamani © RT / RT

 

The Bolivian foreign minister has firmly rejected Washington’s hegemonic ambitions as manifested in Donald Trump’s latest threat of a military intervention in Venezuela, while underlining Caracas’ right to self-determination without outside meddling.

READ MORE: US-Venezuela standoff: Latin America haunted by ‘ghost of military interventions’

Speaking to RT in Moscow following his meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, Fernando Huanacuni Mamani emphasized that any foreign meddling in Venezuela’s domestic affairs is unacceptable.

Read more

Military intervention in Venezuela crisis is unacceptable – Lavrov

“Our countries, Russia and Bolivia, also agree that we firmly reject any kind of meddling with or encroachment on the sovereignty of Venezuela. If we want to help, we should respect the democratic process launched in Venezuela, it’s very important to preserve harmony in the region,” Mamani said.

Venezuela has been gripped by violent street protests since April which has already led to over 100 deaths. Amid the ongoing crisis in the South American country, the Trump administration blacklisted a number of senior Venezuelan officials, including president Nicolas Maduro, freezing their assets in the US and banning American citizens from doing business with them.

The sanctions were imposed following last month’s Constituent Assembly elections which the US branded “illegitimate.” According to Caracas, approximately 8 million people voted for the 545 candidates who will now draft a new constitution for the country.

On Friday, Trump called Maduro a “dictator” and blamed him for the worsening humanitarian situation in the country, further escalating the tensions between the two nations. To put an end to the crisis, a “military operation, a military option, is certainly something we could pursue,” Trump added.

READ MORE: ‘Get your dirty hands out of Venezuela’ – Maduro to Trump

The Bolivian foreign minister, whose country is closely allied with Venezuela, said negotiations are the only way to achieve peace in the oil-rich country Latin American country.

Read more

Maduro to Trump: ‘Stop aggression against Venezuela, stop meddling in Latin American affairs’

“Dialogue is the only way, allowing to resolve the crucial domestic issues. Venezuela elected the National Constituent Assembly, it is an excellent opportunity to reach a consensus and discuss the perspectives of the further development for Venezuela,” Mamani said, adding that Bolivia has vast experience in solving problems through dialogue.

The Constituent Assembly, the diplomat noted, is the “best format” to have a nationwide dialogue which encompasses all levels of society. “It’s a format created democratically as a tool for decision-making, conducting debates within the framework of the constitution and for devising constitutional solutions,” Mamani said.

Pointing to the disastrous history of US-led and supported interventions across the globe, including in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan, Mamani noted that intervention only leads to the “collapse of these countries.”

Emphasizing that foreign intervention is an “inefficient way” to achieve stability in any state, Mamani called on Washington to abandon their hegemonic ambitions and recognize the existence of a multipolar world where nations can determine their own future.

“The hegemony of the Western world and the [US] empire has come to an end,” Mamani told RT.

“Today, a new multipolar world order emerges, in which all peoples can choose their own way, establish their own democracy in a completely different format, trying to build a balanced relationship with other countries, instead of the hegemony sought by the United States.”

UN lambastes Trump’s Venezuela military action threat

The UN chief says Latin American countries must be safeguarded from foreign intervention after the US president threatened military intervention in Venezuela.

Source: PressTV-UN lambastes Trump’s Venezuela military action threat

http://www.presstv.com

Aug 17, 2017

This July 7, 2017 file photo provided by the United Nations shows Secretary General Antonio Guterres addressing a press conference in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana. (Photos by AFP)

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has stressed that Latin American countries must be safeguarded from foreign intervention after US President Donald Trump threatened military action in Venezuela.

On Friday, Trump said his administration was considering many measures, “including a possible military option if necessary,” to repair what he referred to as a “dangerous mess” in Venezuela in the wake of the formation of the country’s Constituent Assembly.

Apart from being rejected by the government in Caracas and Venezuela’s opposition coalition, the statement was also rejected by all Latin American countries — not only allies to President Nicolas Maduro such as Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, but even those strongly opposed to Maduro, including Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile.  During a Wednesday press conference, Guterres said “it is very clear that Latin America has successfully struggled over the last decades to free itself from both foreign intervention and authoritarianism.”

“This is a lesson that is very important, to make sure that this legacy is safeguarded — and namely in Venezuela, both aspects of it,” he added.

He further called for talks to restart between the government and the opposition as he believed that “only… a political solution based on those negotiations” can resolve the standoff between the two sides.

Guterres also hailed efforts made by international mediators and regional leaders towards restarting talks in the country. “I’ve been in close contact with all of them,” he added.

The UN chief further criticized Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro over the formation of the all-powerful constitutional assembly.

Pro-government activists perform during a demonstration to support President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, on August 14, 2017.

Guterres’ remarks come as the oil-rich but impoverished country has been convulsed by months of deadly protests against the government in Caracas.

Political tensions in Venezuela rose recently after Caracas announced plans to establish a Constituent Assembly to take over the opposition-controlled parliament and rewrite the constitution. The opposition saw the move as an overt attempt by President Maduro to accumulate power.

Protests erupted on the streets, and clashes led to the death of at least 120 people from the two sides.