The Chinese government issued its first petroyuan-denominated long-term oil trading contracts in the spring of 2018, with the move posing an audacious challenge to the petrodollar - the powerful instrument of global trade and finance ensuring the US dollar's status as the de facto world reserve currency for over 50 years now.
Saudi minister of industry and mineral resources Bandar Al-Khorayef told the South China Morning Post this week that Riyadh is ready to “do what’s in its best interest” and “try new things,” including as far as the use of the petroyuan in settlements for crude oil are concerned.
The comments, made on the eve of Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s trip to Saudi Arabia and the UAE starting Wednesday to discuss expanded cooperation with the oil rich Gulf kingdoms, signal a "new dawn" in relations between China and Gulf powers, Dr. Wang Zhimin, director of the Institute of Globalization at China’s University of International Business and Economics, told Sputnik.
“In energy cooperation between China and the Middle East, settlements using the yuan have become an important topic. The expansion of the use of the currency in settlements for energy transactions is a gradual and long-term process that requires step-by-step reforms, opening up, and natural market selection. In addition, given the relationship with the United States, the process of using the yuan to settle cross-border oil transactions by countries such as Saudi Arabia may encounter certain difficulties,” Wang said, pointing to US efforts to shore up the petrodollar as Washington’s global economic hegemony fades.
Pointing to the trend of “dedollarization” in China-Middle East trade, Wang cited the currency swap agreement reached between Beijing and Riyadh last year, and interest in using the yuan for oil payments as a reflection of a “growing trend of diversification of the international monetary system, including the decline of the dollar’s share in international payments.”
Russian economist Nikita Maslennikov says the petroyuan has good prospects as a major alternative to the petrodollar, which could leave it accounting for up to 8% of global transactions by 2030, notwithstanding “strong pressure, including political pressure, from other market players," and other factors.
“Sooner or later a single BRICS settlement system will emerge, and Saudi Arabia is also going to be part of it,” Maslennikov said, noting that it’s “extremely difficult” to predict the future status of the petroyuan amid plans by some countries to forge ahead with an “energy transition,” and take other steps, like launching digital currencies, which could lead “to a significant adjustment of settlements in national currencies.”......more below
Ghana is interested in purchasing a floating nuclear power plant from Russia, Ghanaian Ambassador to Russian Koma Steem Jehu-Appiah told Sputnik.
"I know that our minister of energy was here last year and signed a corresponding agreement. I think this is innovative, and in a conversation with the minister of energy, he said that the country is interested.
So, Ghana could purchase such a nuclear power plant," the diplomat said when asked about the possibility of Ghana purchasing a floating nuclear power plant.
Russia and Ghana began cooperation in the field of nuclear energy after signing an intergovernmental agreement in 2015.
The agreement outlined plans for joint work in the areas of training specialists, building nuclear power plants and related infrastructure, and providing maintenance services. In October 2023, representatives of Rosatom met with the Ghanaian Ministry of Energy in Cape Town. At the meeting, Russia proposed using floating nuclear power plants to supply power to ...
