Russia and China are making moves to dethrone the U.S. dollar in global oil markets. Russian and Chinese hydrocarbon giants, Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation, have agreed to switched payments for gas supplies to rubles. China has long regarded the position of its renminbi currency in the global league table of currencies as being a reflection of its own geopolitical and economic importance on the world stage. The long-mooted prospect of the end of the U.S. dollar’s hegemony in the global oil and gas markets took another step towards realisation last week with the announcement that Russian and Chinese hydrocarbons giants, Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) have agreed to switch payments for gas supplies to rubles (RUB) and renminbi (RMB) instead of dollars. In the first phase of the new payments system, this will apply to Russian gas supplies to China via the ‘Power of Siberia’ […]