Almost 50 tankers are bound for the US amid OPEC+ supply curbs. Some vessels are sailing for the US Gulf without cargo bookings.

Bloomberg reports A Record Number of Supertankers Is Headed to Collect US Oil

Forty-eight vessels are bound for the country in the coming three months, according to data gathered Friday by Bloomberg. That’s the most in at least six years.

US producers are increasingly sending low-sulfur “light-sweet” oil overseas, while many domestic refiners prefer to fill their slates with heavier grades that yield more diesel-type fuels.

The glut of vessels racing to the US Gulf even includes ships heading to the region on a speculative basis without any cargo booking, an industry practice known as ballasting, according to EA Gibson, a London-based shipbroker.

Petrodollar Silliness

Amusingly, people still talk about the petrodollar or the demise of the petrodollar. Similarly, some claim the petroyuan will doom the dollar.

Both theories are wildly absurd.

Saudi Arabia accumulated US dollars not because oil was priced in dollars as many still ridiculously believe. Rather it was due toa combination of factors: The US was once the biggest oil importer, US treasuries are the most liquid asset in the world, Europe has no centralized bond market.

The US is now energy independent whereas China is increasingly dependent on the Mideast.

I have been writing about this for years.

• October 25, 2017: Gold-Backed Petro-Yuan Silliness: Reserve Currency Curse? “CNBC reports China has grand ambitions to dethrone the dollar. It may make a powerful move this year.“
• April 21, 2018: Petroyuan’s Crash at Birth – “The idea that the yuan will soon replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency is ridiculous for currency reasons, political reasons, and economic reasons.“
• March 26, 2018: PetroYuan is a Huge US Success Story, Not a Chinese One “The huge irony in all the petroyuan hype is that it is a direct result of forthcoming US energy independence. That’s a US achievement, far bigger than the symbolic gain by China“
• May 7, 2020: Death of the Dollar Theories Circulate Endlessly “In the real world, let’s discuss what it takes to to be the world’s global reserve currency.“
• May 26, 2021: How Well is China Doing at Promoting Yuan Usage in Global Trade?
• End of U.S. Dollar Hegemony – Not

RMB Global Trade Usage Summary

• January 2014: 1.39% 
• January 2015: 1.81% 
• April 2019: 1.88%
• April 2021: 1.95%

That was from my May 26, 2021 report.

Chinese Yuan’s Market Share

In July of 2026, Goldman Sachs reported China’s currency rises in cross-border trade but remains limited globally

The U.S. dollar is still the dominant currency in international payments, accounting for 43% in May, according to SWIFT. Some 32% of international payments were in euros, 7% in British pounds, and 3.2% in Japanese yen.

China’s global market share increased to 2.5% as of May 2023, from 1.1% by the end of 2013.

China’s share was 1.1 percent in 2013. Ten years later it was 2.5 percent.

Yet several times every year, we see death of the dollar stories all due to a crash of the petrodollar, the rise of the petroyuan, or BRICS-related silliness.

Hoot of the Day

Canada (CAD) has a bigger international market share than China (CNY) !

But the stories will continue, and continue, and continue. The death of the dollar will perpetually remain six months away.

What Would it Take for a BRIC-Based Currency to Succeed?

Lost in the hype over BRICS dethroning or challenging the US dollar is total ignorance about the answer to this key question: What Would it Take for a BRIC-Based Currency to Succeed?

I list six conditions. See if you can figure out what some of them are.

Meanwhile, zero of them are in place and most likely never will be.

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