COLUMNA de AZTLAN

Oil closed over $100.00 a barrel for the first time in history. The U.S. media would like to blame it all on an explosion in Texas but the truth is that Opec has called for an decrease in production, Venezuela has cut off the U.S. and Iran has finally got its oil trading bourse online. In addition, Iran will be accepting only Petroeuros and will not accept Petrodollars for its oil.

It's not likely that the price will begin a sustainable downward trend. In short, they have us by the barrels!

TEHRAN, Feb 17, 2008 (AFP) - Iran on Sunday inaugurated its first stock exchange for oil products and petrochemicals, in a bid to become a major player in the global downstream industry.

OPEC's number two crude oil producer hopes that its oil exchange can lead the way for a domestic downstream industry to match its upstream crude oil production, the country's main foreign currency revenue winner.

"We have been a good seller (of crude oil) and now we have a higher objective to have a share in the oil trade," Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari told reporters.

Iran claims to rank second in the region after Saudi Arabia in terms of production of petrochemicals at 22 million tons a year.

But it has failed to gain a significant share in the world export market because of state control of its petrochemical industry and state subsidies.

"The objective is to make transactions (of oil products) transparent, create competition and motives for investment," the oil minister added.

The U.S. Dollar continued its decline on news that OPEC member states are pressuring the OPEC General Secretary, Abdalla El-Badri, to switch from the PetroDollar to the PetroEuro.

The U.S. has regularly deflated the dollar in order to minimize the value of foreign holdings. Holdings that are accumulated by the sale of petroleum.

The Euro, meanwhile, maintains its value, creating more demand that sends prices even higher. Making the dollar a sure losing bet.

OPEC nations no longer want to see their treasuries lose value by the billions. And that's what happens when the U.S. Dollar comprises the bulk of their stockpiles of foreign currencies. OPEC nations sell oil to the Americans and after the OPEC nations have received payment, the U.S. goes to work on devaluing the dollar, that way they get away with paying less for the oil. Well, at least that's how it was done since the end of the gold standard.