http://www.arabianbusiness.com/569907-oil-trade-to-remain-in-dollars---kuwait-finmin

I would take this with a large grain of salt, USD influence, in fact American influence in the region is waning despite overtures by Obama whom the Arabs generally like. The Bush era has left deep scars of mistrust and pushed most players in the region towards the Chinese, Russians and Indians. I've obviously not spoken with those directly influencing any decision on USD, but after having spoken at length with various senior business and government officials in the UAE/Qatar/Bahrain region of the GCC I can confirm that they believe the earlier the exit from a USD base the better. As I said in a previous post, the interest in gold and silver in the region and with their aforementioned new partners is growing.

What is key here is that it is Kuwait saying this on record, which is by far and large the most pro-American state in the GCC... a very popular name in the country for new boys is (or perhaps was prior to Jr's stint in office) George. It would be interesting to see what the others in the region think or in fact what they are currently negotiating... I have heard that pure EUR is the other option on the table other than the basket of currencies.

ECU related, I have put in another buy at this price and a further one in case the price slides slightly. I know I was a little 'simplistic' in my assertion that assets under ground versus the POS was the benchmark, but it was on purpose. I was simply trying to dispel some of the mad arguments floating about against ECU by getting to the simple stuff. Is ECU a company with significant amounts of precious metal underground? Yes. Is it commercially viable? From everything I have seen... Yes. Will they be profitable soon? Sincerely hope so and am anticipating it. Is the POS good and getting better? Again, yes and believe so. So the bashers can throw in GOG disputes and shares in issue, yadda yadda yadda, until the cows come home. I would like to see less shares, but we have what we have. What does this number of shares mean I there were 1 billion ounces of recoverable silver under the ground? Company is worth currently 185.74 million, so silver worth retail 17 billion plus... um... I don't know there are guys much better at this part than me, but it sure looks like a simple "yah that looks cheap" to me.

Throw in the fact that the company has put in place a way to ensure they have financing for the foreseeable future and their obvious commitment to taking their time and doing their assessing right... I see a rare opportunity and will personally stock up. Time will tell if my reasoning is correct, but I will always be happy I took the risk based on sound logic.