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Iran launches oil bourse
Oxford Analytica
The long-delayed Iranian Oil Bourse (IOB) will start operations on Sunday, the official Iranian news agency IRNA said, citing the country's oil minister.

The exchange, based on the Gulf island of Kish, a free trade zone, opens with a whimper, rather than the promised roar. The IOB has long been touted by Iranian news agencies as a petrobourse for petroleum, petrochemicals and gas in various non-dollar currencies, primarily the euro, which would have a negative impact on the US economy and financial system. Yet trading will start on the bourse with two or three petrochemical products and Iranian rials will be used for all transactions.

Iran, the second-largest producer in OPEC, was originally expected to start its own oil-trading market in 2005. Yet the exchange has missed at least three announced opening dates and was further delayed by the complete elimination of internet connectivity to the country, which sparked conspiracy theories over who would have felt threatened enough to cut the cables. The success of the bourse depends on unlikely cooperation with other OPEC members as well as a much-needed consensus from Gulf States.
(16-22 February 2008)

Iran's Oil Bourse Will Start Operations Feb. 17, IRNA Reports
Ayesha Daya, Bloomberg
Iran's oil exchange will start operations on Feb. 17, the official Iranian news agency IRNA said, citing the country's oil minister.

The Iranian rial will be used for all transactions on the Tehran Oil Bourse, Gholamhossein Nozari said today, according to IRNA.

Iran, the second-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, was originally expected to start its own oil-trading market in 2005.
(13 February 2008)

Iran to open oil products bourse next week
Reuters via The Peninsula (Qatar)
Iran will open the first stage of a long-delayed bourse to trade oil products next week, Iranian officials were quoted as saying yesterday. Iran has in past years said it would open such an exchange but the inauguration has repeatedly been postponed. Officials last said the bourse, based on the Gulf island of Kish, would start before March 2007. That deadline was also missed. Iran had also earlier said that trading on the bourse would start with two or three petrochemical products.

Ali Salehabadi, the head of the bourse, said the first stage for trading on the exchange would begin on Sunday, Fars News Agency reported, without giving details. Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said trading on the bourse would be in Iranian rials, the official IRNA news agency reported. He did not say which products would be traded first.

Iranian officials had previously said that once trading began in oil products, business could expand to crude sales.
(14 February 2008)

Iran’s Oil Bourse Set to Open Sunday
Shaun Booth, Politicallore
Iranian Oil minister Gholamhossein Nozari has confirmed to Iranian news outlets that the long awaited oil bourse will begin trading in oil related products on Sunday February 17th. Just what “oil related products” means is not yet clear because few details have been released to the public.

What we do know is that the bourse (oil exchange) will be dealing in strictly rail, the Iranian currency. The guess is right now that the bourse, which is to be located on the gulf island of Kish, will open by trading in “oil products” and within a short amount of time begin dealing in crude. This comes at a time when Iran’s oil output is reaching levels not seen in Iran since 1979.

The fear in the United States in some economic circles is that the opening of this bourse could lead to a further decline of the U.S. dollar. The U.S. dollar is currently the international currency in the trading of crude oil, with all oil exchanges being located in the Western world, but the Iranian oil bourse would seek to change this fact. As long as the U.S. dollar is the only international currency that can be used in purchasing oil the dollar will remain relatively stable because it will be in demand to purchase oil, if for no other reason. Therefore, countries such as Saudi Arabia are forced to accept the dollar for the sale of their crude and countries such as China and India are forced to keep the dollar on hand to purchase oil. Since the dollar has now fallen below the value of the Euro the opening of the Iranian Oil Bourse would remove one of the last remaining incentives for nations to hold onto the United States dollar. Some even go as far as to speculate this looming opening of the oil bourse being a reason for the harsh rhetoric Washington has used in the recent past towards Iran.

All of this however is only speculation at this point. Iran has repeatedly scheduled dates for the opening of an oil exchange only to push the opening back to a later date. The bourse’s success also hinges on whether or not other Persian Gulf nations as well as OPEC members sign on and become involved in the exchange.
(14 February 2008)

Iran Oil Bourse' US Dollar and Internet Cables
Mathaba News
"All preparations have been made to launch the bourse; it will open during the Ten-Day Dawn (the ceremonies marking the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran)," Iran's Finance Minister said. However other reports indicate further delays to this already overdue project, with it possibly opening on February 19th. The Minister earlier stated that the Oil Bourse is located on the Persian Gulf island of Kish. [link] [link]

Western media have failed to report on this significant event, which is believed to be the real reason for the hostility and threats of the western globalist elite toward Iran's peaceful nuclear energy program. It is the brain child of Englishman Chris Cook a former director of the International Petroleum Exchange who blew the whistle on market manipulation at the IPE. He has worked for several years in Iran on a Middle Eastern Energy exchange which has been dubbed the "Iran Oil Bourse (IOB)". He said the system would work as a "Peer to Peer" network using the Internet rather than the traditional centralized method to avoid the market manipulation by intermediary traders which affects other oil trading centres.
(12 February 2008)
About Mathaba.

Iran to launch oil bourse next week
Iran Press TV
Iran's Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari has said the long-awaited Iranian Oil Bourse will be inaugurated next Sunday.

The inauguration ceremony of the bourse will be attended by Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Davoud Danesh Ja'fari, who will appoint the head of the Iranian Oil Bourse

Ja'fari earlier stated that the Oil Bourse will be located on the Persian Gulf island of Kish and the official trade currency will be the Iranian rial.

The bourse will act as a trading platform for oil, petrochemical and gas products.

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

MMM/JC/BGH
(13 February 2008)
Similar article at RIA Novosti.