RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- OPEC is not looking to move away from the weakening U.S. dollar as the main currency of the oil trade, its secretary-general said in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Abdalla Salem El-Badri attributed the declining value of the dollar as one of the factors of $90-plus per barrel oil; he said it's up to each country to decide in which currency to sell oil.
"The secretariat is not working on this," El-Badri said at a news conference ahead of the Third OPEC Summit in Riyadh. "It's not on our agenda."
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which produces 40 percent of the oil consumed in the world, is looked to when oil spikes.
The dollar, which most oil sales are conducted in, has decreased in value by nearly 16 percent since November 2005 compared with other major currencies, according to an index published by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
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Ben Lando, UPI Energy Editor
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(e-mail: [email protected])
