Dollar’s days numbered as global trade currency: Russia Saudi pips Iraq as top oil supplier to India

Many European refiners are winding down purchases of Iranian oil

NEW DELHI, Aug 14, (RTRS): Saudi Arabia replaced Iraq as top oil supplier to India in July after a gap of more than a year, according to data from industry and shipping sources, as a higher intake of Iranian oil ahead of US sanctions altered trade routes.

Many European refiners are winding down purchases of Iranian oil after the United States imposed sanctions on Tehran, leading to higher supplies to Asia, mainly India and China.

The United States in May quit the 2015 nuclear deal and announced reimposition of sanctions on Tehran. While some sanctions were implemented from Aug 6, those affecting Iran’s petroleum sector will come into force from Nov 4.

Imports of Iranian oil by India, Tehran’s top oil client after China, surged to a record 768,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July due to higher intake by state refiners, tanker arrival data showed. India’s top refiner wants to continue buying Iranian oil as the OPEC member is offering discounts in freight and extended credit period, Sanjiv Singh, Chairman of Indian Oil Corp, said on Monday.

Saudi Arabia and Iraq continued to be the two biggest oil suppliers to India last month although monthly supplies from them declined by 12 percent and about 23 percent in July, the data obtained from shipping and trade sources showed. The sources declined to be identified.

On top of incentives offered by Iran on oil sales, higher July official selling prices (OSPs) of oil from

Saudi Arabia and Iraq also dented demand for their oil.

“Iranian crude OSPs for July have moved in tandem with other middle east producers but incentives offered

by Iran has made its oil more attractive compared to other alternatives,” Sushant Gupta, Research Director, Asia Pacific Refining, at consultancy Wood Mackenzie. ANKARA, Aug 14, (RTRS): The US dollar’s role as a global currency is in decline and Russia has been exploring for some time using national currencies to settle bilateral trade deals with Turkey and other countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

But Lavrov, speaking on a visit to the Turkish capital on Tuesday, did not make any commitments for Russia to drop the dollar in trade with Turkey, whose lira currency plummeted to a record low against the dollar this week.

“I’m confident that the grave abuse of the role of the US dollar as a global reserve currency will result over time in the weakening and demise of its role,” said Lavrov, who was speaking at a news conference with his Turkish counterpart.

Currencies

“The use of national currencies for mutual trade has for several years been one of the tasks that the presidents of Russia and Turkey had set,” said Lavrov.

“Identical processes have been happening in our relations with Iran. Not only with Turkey and Iran, we’re also arranging and already implementing payments in national currencies with the People’s Republic of China,” Lavrov said.

On Monday, the Kremlin said that Russia favoured bilateral trade with all countries in their national currencies, rather than the dollar, but that the idea needed detailed work before being implemented.