Venezuela to Sell Oil for Petro Cryptocurrency in 2019, Says Maduro

Venezuela's President Maduro has said the nation will sidestep the U.S. dollar and phase in use of its controversial petro token for oil sales starting next year.

From state-run media network TeleSUR on Thursday, Venezuela's President Maduro said that the move is aimed at minimizing the dollar's dominance in the industry and diversifying the global market.

"In 2019, we have a schedule for [oil] to be sold in petros and in this way continue to free us from a currency that the elite of Washington uses."

The announcement of the plan - which involves setting up trading in the petro with a range of currencies - comes after a meeting earlier this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Maduro added that Russia is already trading oil and other products in Chinese yuan and that Venezuela would follow its example, "Progressively" moving to sell all its oil products in petros.

Last month, Manuel Quevedo, Venezuela's minister of petroleum and the president of state-owned oil company PDVSA, announced.

That the country will present the petro to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in 2019, as the "Main digital currency backed by oil."

In pre-sale in February and Maduro has moved to integrate it into the fabric of the country's economy.

The petro illegal borrowing against the nation's reserves of oil.

Selling petro to citizens in October via a government portal.