Iranian Oil Exchange
                 …Declaration of War?

Iranian Rial main currency at oil bourse
IranMania.com

LONDON- Iranian rials will be used as the main currency at the much-publicized oil bourse that the world’s fourth largest oil producing country and the second biggest exporter within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is to establish on the Persian Gulf island of Kish, Iran Daily reported.

Mehdi Karbasian, who heads the board of directors of the International Oil Bourse Company, told Fars that the euro and the US dollar will also be used concurrently at the bourse.

He said that preliminary work on the establishment of the bourse has been completed and that the technical equipment has yet to be supplied.

“Software systems existing in the country will be used in the first phase,“ he said, adding that the government has to determine which oil products will be traded at the bourse and how much.

Karbasian said that petrochemicals and subsidized oil products cannot be offered on the exchange, stressing, however, that the bourse will not become operational as long as a decision has not been made on this particular issue.

In June, articles of association of Iran’s first oil bourse were ratified at a meeting of the Board of Directors of International Oil Bourse Company.

Fars said the articles of association of the projected oil bourse is the outcome of extensive studies using experiences of other countries and are based on the parliamentary Law on Bourses.

It was said earlier that the first phase of the much-publicized project will become operational by the end of summer.

Experts say the success of an Iranian oil bourse would depend much on cooperation from other OPEC members and a much-needed consensus with Arab Persian Gulf states.

Lawmakers insist that oil bourse must be established as soon as possible, stressing that the implementation of the protracted project has now become a necessity.

Kamal Daneshyar, who heads Majlis Energy Commission, believes that once the oil bourse becomes operational, some $10 billion will be added to the country’s annual revenues.

Mohammad Karimian, another MP, has also pledged that the Parliament will provide ’whatever support’ needed for the key initiative.