The Russian are slow starters but they drive fast. That is what happened to dedollarization. For a long time, the country's authorities have been stepping up efforts to abandon the US dollar. Apparently, the instructions were not conveyed to executives immediately. Nevertheless, the largest companies of the Russian oil and gas sector are starting to report their refusal to settle accounts in US dollars.
In a move to fend off US sanctions, Russia's top crude oil producer Rosneft was among the first to fully switch the currency of its contracts to euros from US dollars. “We didn't just start the work, we've already completed it. All our export contracts are already being implemented in euros. The share of the dollar in world trade exceeds 60%, and in trade in oil and oil products - 90%. However, turning to a not-so-distant history, we see that financial monopolism can and should be resisted. Therefore, in ten years, we can see a very different picture: with the growth of the role of the Chinese economy, the share of the yuan can grow from the current 2-5% to more significant values,” Igor Sechin, the head of Rosneft, said. NOVATEK also completely excluded the American currency from payments under its export contracts. “In July 2014, NOVATEK was subject to sectoral sanctions, under which American legal entities and individuals cannot provide us with credit. So this process started at NOVATEK earlier than at Rosneft,” Chairman of Management Board of NOVATEK Leonid Mikhelson added.
