India has no other place to replace the oil they need so this deal would have them paying the difference of the adjusted tade balance in gold.

At this point the only source for this story seems to be Debka, which doesn't rank very high on my credibility list. That's not to say they're making it up - often the media is used to float an idea to see what the public/market reaction is. That way policy makers don't have to commit to an idea that has no chance of ever flying.

That may be the case here: gold for oil is being considered, but we want to gauge the market's reaction first. Well, they got MY reaction...lol!

This definitely bears watching though. Any return to gold for international settlement has the oil market as its nexus, followed by US reactions to abandoning the dollar standard, which presumably won't be pleasant.

ebear