Reality Check: The World Energy Congress didn’t get much coverage in the press. Could you tell readers what it is and why it is important?

Peter Koenig: The 22nd World Energy Congress, one of the most important meetings of the energy sector, also dubbed the “Energy Olympics” took place from October 13-17, 2013 in Daegu, South Korea. It was attended by some 5,000 participants from 93 countries, including about 50 ministers and senior government officials.

The World Energy Congress (WEC) takes place every three years. The first one took place in London in 1924. This is only the second time the Conference has taken place in Asia – perhaps a sign of Asia’s emerging importance in energy production and trading – and more: a testimony to Asia’s economic ascent in the world arena.

Among the niceties, à la UN-propaganda, was Ban Ki-moon’s promise that by 2030 all humanity will have access to power, whereas today, one in five people lack it. Let’s hope this promise comes true – not like the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) – reducing by 2015 the world’s poverty by half of what it was in 2000 – which was mere political brouhaha of developing countries’ leaders to mobilize more money from the West, but hardly any of them has accomplished what the UN promised.

It is amazing how little coverage this WEC event received from the Western media – especially ignored was the time bomb dropped by Igor Sechin, CEO of Rosneft, the leader of Russia’s hydrocarbon exploration and production. Mr. Sechin called for a “Global Mechanism to Swap Gas Supplies” and went on suggesting that “It [was] advisable to create an international stock-exchange for the participating countries, where transactions could be registered with the use of regional currencies”.

Reality Check: How will this new global gas exchange affect the world’s economy? This looks like an attempt to crash the whole system based on petrodollars.

Peter Koenig: This would mean another blow to the US dollar. If regional gas transactions are dealt in local currencies by participating members through a stock-exchange – an ‘Oil Bourse’, to use the term coined by Iran in 2007 – soon most hydrocarbon will be dealt with in local currencies, and soon most oil and gas producers will join, as they are tired of using an imposed currency, the US dollar, which has long ago lost its glamour of security – if it ever had any – and certainly the confidence around the world. That could mean soon the end of American hegemony across the continents, the end of a self-styled, armed-to-the-teeth empire without sacrificing a drop of blood.

A similar scenario was described already in earlier Voice of Russia articles, most recently on October 9th and 10th, 2013

Part 1

Part 2

Reality Check: It looks like the scenario we’ve talked about is happening right now. So, the gas exchange is the first step towards a new monetary system, without the US dollar?

Peter Koenig: Indeed, as pointed out in these essays, a new currency imposes itself; once the dollar has lost even its fake luster, and the US implodes in its own morass of debt and greed. A demonstration was the recent Washington debacle about budget and debt increase. It’s of course a spectacle that is repeated almost every year. But it demonstrates how fragile the US economy is – and how weak the rest of the (Western) world is – showcased by the recent Brussels EU Summit, where none of the leaders dared to seriously question the Obama Regime after it became clear that the NSA spied not only on common people, the UN and corporations – but also on 35 world leaders, many of them US allies. And that – shortly after Mrs. Merkel furiously went on TV to declare that this American behavior was not tolerable. Obama, who is said to control personally every drone assassination, claimed not to have known about it.

Mrs. Merkel, along with her EU colleagues, was quiet at the Brussels Summit. Nobody questioned further negotiations of the impending Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US; or would not even put it on hold, while trying to reestablish trust in their partner in Washington.

Imagine, if Obama lies about spying, how trustworthy would be an FTA?

Where does this European fear of the master come from? – It’s a ridiculous submission to the emperor without clothes. 

Reality Check: In the context of the NSA scandal, the US is losing international credibility. The timing of Mr. Sechin’s proposal couldn’t have been better.

Peter Koenig: Mr. Sechin’s proposal may put an end to this hypocrisy. As a new energy trading mechanism shines on the horizon, a new monetary system will be of the order. The BRICS, led by Russia and China, may take the initiative. New potential members, countries, like Iran, Venezuela, Malaysia, Vietnam and the oil rich Central Asia Union, as well as others are waiting in the wings.

Their combined population would exceed half the globe’s populace and their joint GDP would easily approach a third of the world’s GDP. 

Reality Check: In this scenario, Europe will have to chose between trying to integrate itself in the new system and trying to defend the old system till the end. What will the EU chose?

Peter Koenig: Inevitably, the European US allies (the Group of Poodles) would have to gravitate towards where the new markets are – for sheer survival. And who of the remaining world wouldn’t want to get away from Washington’s abuse, aggressions, threats and bloodshed?

Reality Check: So, during the US government shutdown, China proposed a political framework for a de-Americanized world and now, Mr. Sechin proposes a mechanism for breaking the hegemony of the US dollar in the international economy and commerce. Who would have thought that a mere proposal for a natural gas exchange can have such a dramatic impact on the world?

 Peter Koenig: We are moving “towards a more just world” – in the words of Liu Chang, the famous writer for China’s official press agency, Xinhua, where he talks on October 13 about a de-Americanized world, “where the destinies of others [now] in the hands of a hypocritical nation have to be terminated, and a new world order should be put in place, according to which all nations, big or small, poor or rich, can have their key interests respected and protected on an equal footing.” Such may be the implications of Mr. Sechin’s seemingly trivial suggestion – to trade hydrocarbons in local currencies in a specially designed stock-exchange. No wonder the Western media have ignored it.