Iran has completely stopped selling any of its oil for US dollars, an Iranian news agency reported today, citing the oil minister of the world's fourth-largest crude producer.
The ISNA news agency did not give a direct quote from Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari. A senior oil official last month said "nearly all" of Iran's crude oil sales were now being paid for in non-US currencies.
Iran's Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari
For nearly two years, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' second biggest producer has been reducing its exposure to the dollar, saying the weak US currency is eroding its purchasing power.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called the US currency a "worthless piece of paper."
Tehran and Washington are also at odds over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme as well as over policy in Iraq.
"In line with the policy of selling crude oil in currencies other than the US dollar, currently the sale of our country's oil in US dollars has been completely eliminated," ISNA reported after talking with Mr Nozari.
Mr Nozari told ISNA: "In regards to the decrease in the dollar's value and the loss exporters of crude oil have endured from this trend, the dollar is no longer a reliable currency."
"This is why, at the meeting of the heads of states, Iran proposed to Opec members that a currency (for oil exports) would be determined that would be reliable and would not cause any loss to exporter countries," he said.
At a November summit of Opec heads of state, Iran suggested oil should be sold in a basket of currencies rather than dollars, but failed to win over other members except Venezuela.