Petrodollars
a.k.a. Petrodollar
US dollars earned by oil-exporting countries, since crude is mostly priced and paid for in dollars.
In plain English
US dollars earned by oil-exporting countries, since crude is mostly priced and paid for in dollars.
Petrodollars are the dollars oil exporters earn when they sell crude. Since the 1970s, most of the world's oil has been priced in US dollars, so every country that buys oil needs dollars to pay for it. That built-in demand is one of the pillars of the dollar's role as the world's reserve currency.
Talk of oil being sold in other currencies, such as the yuan, is part of the wider de-dollarization debate. So far the dollar's grip has proved sticky.
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