Upending the dollar hegemony

Once Saudi, Russian and Iranian oil are denominated in yuan, Beijing will dominate 40% of oil market

Beijing is launching a yuan-denominated crude oil futures market that may soon eclipse the hitherto dominant US dollar-based Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) exchanges. In an additional challenge to the dollar’s role as the global reserve currency, the new “petro-yuan” will be convertible into physical gold at the Shanghai and Hong Kong gold exchanges.

China had shrewdly plotted the dollar’s dethronement for years. While less than one per cent of New York’s COMEX transactions are converted into physical gold, the Shanghai Gold Exchange, operationalised in April 2016, offers full convertibility for the yuan. 

The petro-yuan plan, originally pencilled in for launch