14 November -- Iraq's request to switch the currency used in its United Nations-administered oil sales from dollars to euros has been approved, the office overseeing the effort announced today.
The Office of the Iraq Programme (OIP), which coordinates the "oil-for-food" scheme that allows Baghdad to use a portion of its oil revenues to purchase humanitarian goods, said the issuance of letters of credit for the purchase of Iraqi oil in euro denominations came into effect on 7 November.
"From now on the Iraq oil will be sold in euros," Hasmik Egian, a spokesman for the Office, told the UN News Service. "A bank account has been opened in euros," she added.
Meanwhile, OIP today released its latest statistics on the programme, reporting that the Security Council committee monitoring the sanctions against Baghdad last week approved a new contract for a Spanish company to purchase 1.5 million barrels of Iraqi oil destined for the European market.
Since the current phase of the oil-for-food programme began in June, the committee has approved 116 contracts for the sale of over 436 million barrels of Iraqi oil.
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