Venezuela to Use Petro in Oil Sales Starting Next Year

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has revealed plans to phase in the use of national cryptocurrency Petro (PTR) for oil sales, staring in March 2019. The announcement was made on state television after a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week.

According to a report from local news network TeleSUR, the goal of the initiative is to expand Venezuela’s economy and reduce its reliance on the US dollar. Among Maduro’s measures is a six-year financial plan that will use the Petro to offset the full impact of US-led trade sanctions.

“In 2019, we have a schedule for [oil] to be sold in petros and in this way continue to free us from a currency that the elite of Washington uses. It is necessary to promote a balanced, fair and diverse monetary system, in which the dollar enters as an exchange currency, but which is not used as a political mechanism,” Maduro was quoted as saying.

The president added that Russia was already trading oil and other products in Chinese yuan and Venezuela would follow its example, “progressively” moving to sell all its oil production in Petro.

First announced in February 2018, the Petro was officially launched on October 1, raising about $5 billion in one of the most successful initial coin offerings (ICOs) so far. The Ethereum-powered coin is backed by Venezuela’s oil, gold, and mineral reserves.

Manuel Quevedo, Venezuela’s minister of petroleum and president of state-owned oil company PDVSA, announced last month the country would present the Petro to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2019 as the “main digital currency backed by oil.” Venezuela’s new national currency, the Sovereign Bolivar, was also pegged to the Petro in July.

While the government is determined to integrate the Petro into the national economy and even give it an international status, this foray into the cryptocurrency space has received a lot of criticism. Venezuela’s opposition-controlled congress has called the Petro illegal borrowing against the nation’s reserves of oil.