"Arab Gulf Officials Deny Plan To Ditch USD Oil Trade"

"DUBAI -- Arab officials in the Persian Gulf strongly denied Tuesday a report that they're in secret talks to replace the U.S. dollar with a basket of currencies to price oil.

'We have never heard of this or discussed this, not even secretly,' Qatar's oil minister Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah told Zawya Dow Jones by telephone. Arab states in the Gulf account for about half the crude pumped by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC.

British newspaper The Independent reported earlier that Gulf oil producers, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, are negotiating with Russia, China, Japan and France to replace the dollar with a basket of currencies to trade crude."

Tahani Karrar-Lewsley and Summer Said report for Zawya Dow Jones in the Wall Street Journal October 6, 2009.