Iranian oil bourse

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Iran is planning to open a commodity exchange, variously referred to as the Iran Petroleum Exchange, International Oil Bourse or Iranian Oil Bourse. The acronym IOB has been used as it can be interpreted as either "International Oil Bourse" or "Iranian Oil Bourse", but it has no official status. It would be a Petrobourse for petroleum, petrochemicals and gas in various non-dollar currencies, primarily the euro. If successful, it would establish a euro-based pricing mechanism for oil trading, or oil marker as it is called by traders.

The geographical location is expected to be the Persian Gulf island of Kish (which is designated by Iran as a free trade zone.)[1].

The bourse has not yet opened, having missed at least three announced opening dates.

Background

The three current oil markers are all US dollar denominated: North America's West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI), North Sea Brent Crude, and the UAE Dubai Crude. The two major oil bourses are the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) in New York City and the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) in London. The proposed Iranian bourse would establish a fourth oil marker, denominated by the euro.

Timeline

The Iranian oil bourse, first reported in 2005, was to have a planned opening date of March 20, 2006 [2], which is the Iranian New Year, Nauroz. According to an April 2005 report, the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), the Wimpole Consortium and a private staff fund for retired petroleum workers will together form the consortium developing the exchange [3].

In January 2006, Chris Cook of the Wimpole Consortium referred to delays in the process due to the election to the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and subsequent difficulty in appointing a new oil minister acceptable both to the president and parliament [4].

In March 2006, the Petroleum Minister of Iran, Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh, announced that due to "technical glitches", the Bourse launch was postponed, with no new date set. [5]. However, as of April 26 Iran had restarted its move to open the oil market, and Kazem announced the bourse was set to open the first week of May [6].

In May 2006, Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Davud Danesh-Jafari said the Oil Ministry has a two-month deadline for presenting the Articles of Association of the Iranian Oil Bourse. Danesh-Jafari said that the euro had not yet been finalized as the legal tender of transactions in the oil bourse, and the final decision about that depends upon the Oil Ministry’s proposed IOB Articles of Association [7]

During the first phase of its implementation, the Iranian Oil Bourse plans to offer financial derivatives relating to crude oil.

In July 2006, a building has been purchased and the projected opening date is September 2006. [8] On September 15, Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh stated that all preparatory requirements had been arranged for launching the oil stock market in the country.[9] However, the launch has still not occurred.

In December 2006 Bloomberg cited two Iranian newspapers reporting Iran's Minister of Economy Davoud Danesh-Ja'fari Iran as wanting to cut US dollar based transactions to a minimum.[10]

In March 2007 Tehran based PRESS TV reported that the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad announced a shift of its major currency from dollars to euros. Iraqis traveling to Iran will pay for a visa in euros in line with other Iran Embassy locations. [11]

In March 2007 The Scotsman reported that China's state-run Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp, the biggest buyer of Iranian crude worldwide, began paying for its oil in euros late last year. Iranian officials have said for months that more than half the OPEC member's customers switched their payment currency away from the dollar as Tehran seeks to diversify its reserves, but news of the Zhenrong change is the first outside confirmation. Japan have also announced that they would be willing to switch to Yen from US Dollars.[12] Iran's central banker announced in March 2007 that Iran had cut its holding of U.S.-dollar assets to around 20% of its foreign reserves in response to U.S. hostility.[13]

See also

Citations

  1. ^ Kish Oil Exchange Planned, Iran Daily, January 24, 2006
  2. ^ The Iranian line in the sand, Dan Crawford, The Republic (Vancouver), August 18 to 31, 2005
  3. ^ A star rises in the east, Stella Farrington, April 2005
  4. ^ Speaking freely: What the Iran 'nuclear issue' is really about, Chris Cook, January 21, 2006, Asia Times/energybulletin.net
  5. ^ A frenzied Persian new year, March 22, 2006, Asia Times
  6. ^ Iran oil bourse next week, April 26, 2006, Iranian.ws
  7. ^ Ministry to offer IOB Articles of Association in two months, May 19, 2006, Mehr News Agency
  8. ^ Iranian Journel, building has been purchased and new date is September, accessed July 6 2006
  9. ^ Iran's oil bourse to be launched, September 15, 2006, Mehr News Agency
  10. ^ Iran May Reduce Use of Dollar, Tehran Papers Say, December 6, 2006, Bloomberg
  11. ^ http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=4131&sectionid=3510206
  12. ^ China shifts to euros for Iran oil, The Scotsman, 27 March 2007
  13. ^ IRI to stop pricing oil in dollars, IRIB News, 31 March 2007

Literature

  • Clark, William R.: Petrodollar Warfare : Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar, New Society Publishers, 2005, ISBN 0-86571-514-9

External links

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