We’re only about an eight hour drive from that area and, as a result, we hear quite a bit of the local news that doesn’t make it to the network news broadcasts including two separate instances of locals being murdered by men attracted to the area and, for whatever reason, choosing an alternative path than driving a truck for an oil company.

So far, there has been no official confirmation of this story and, at the moment, I’d have to agree with this commentary at Commodity Online that it’s probably best viewed as a rumor, but, if both India and China do intend to pay for their $25 billion per year in oil purchases from Iran with the yellow metal, that could result in a lot of gold being mobilized.

Of course that wouldn’t necessarily mean that the gold price will rise. India could simply exchange their currency for gold, transfer ownership of the gold to Iran in exchange for oil, and then Iran could exchange that gold for whatever currency they desire, having no net effect on gold demand. But, it certainly won’t hurt the gold price and will surely further diminish the reserve currency status of the U.S. dollar.

Iran and Russia have replaced US Dollar with their own currencies in their trade ties, a senior Iranian diplomat announced on Saturday.

Speaking to FNA, Tehran’s Ambassador to Moscow Seyed Reza Sajjadi said that the proposal for replacing US Dollar with Ruble and Rial was raised by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Astana on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting.

“Since then, we have acted on this basis and a part of our interactions is done in Ruble now,” Sajjadi stated, adding that many Iranian traders are using Ruble for their trade deals.

“There is a similar interest in the Russian side,” the envoy stated, adding that that Moscow is against unilateral sanctions on Iran outside the UN Security Council, specially the recent sanctions against Iran’s Central Bank (CBI).

This follows a number of similar moves by Iran in recent months with other trading partners and China’s ongoing efforts to establish currency agreements with many other nations, most recently Japan, a reminder that currencies such as the U.S. dollar loser their “reserve” status very slowly, but, in this case, apparently very surely.

Clearly, there’s a pretty good correlation between volatility in U.S. stocks and the gold price, but, as shown above, the former follows the latter – maybe not what you might think at first. Most of the other charts are related to the global economy, credit and currency markets where there are no doubt more relationships to explore, such as the coincident peaks in late-April for the euro and oil (and silver).

If not for resilient energy prices, this year would look a lot like 2008, however, after last week’s oil price surge, all but natural gas will likely end with double-digit gains. Of course, gold looks as though it will rack up its 11th straight year of gains, though, with sentiment in the gold market the way it currently is, few will notice.

Les Wilson
Home state: Florida

I’m from way down south and I’m up here in a blizzard part of North Dakota hunting for jobs with thousands of other people.

I’m 61 and still going strong — at least trying to, anyway. I only have a truck to sleep in, but I’m making out okay.

I’ve been overseas for the last four years working for the military, and I just got back from Afghanistan June 1. I spent a few months at home and I knew that jobs — good paying jobs — were available here in North Dakota in the oilfields. So I told my wife — I kissed her goodbye and said, `Honey, I gotta go find a good-paying job’. And here I am, and I’ve been here for the last month or so.

Good ol’ Walmart is being very hospitable about letting us stay in their parking lot.

Update: After spending three weeks looking for a job, Les in now getting paid $25 an hour (and lots of overtime) to haul water to the oil fields. He’s still sleeping in his truck, because the building his company uses to house all the truckers doesn’t have any extra room for him. But since it’s getting cold outside, he’s recently had to sleep inside the garage for a little more warmth. His wife, son and grandson are moving in with him in November — and he’s hoping to upgrade to a larger mobile home when they arrive.

The other individuals profiled are from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and California. Apparently WalMart pays about double in Williston what they pay elsewhere because workers are in such high demand – that’s what a 3.5 percent unemployment rate will do (that’s for the state – it’s probably even lower in Williston).

‘My students make twice my salary’

Jim Stout, an English professor at Williston State College in Williston N.D., started losing some of his best students to the oil fields last year.

It was too hard to compete: The students could either spend thousands of dollars on a college education or earn $100,000 a year working on the rigs, performing maintenance on oil wells or driving trucks.

“At some point they decide, ‘Well, college will always be here … but the oil boom won’t,’” he said.

One engineering student dropped out of college last winter to take a job boiling the water used in hydraulic fracturing. In just two weeks, he made $5,000, according to Lance Olson, a science instructor at the college.

With an extreme housing shortage, some suspect that a recent spike in enrollment at Williston State was due to oil field workers taking the minimum number of class credits in order to qualify for inexpensive student housing.

We were through there last fall and had a heck of a time finding a hotel room. With hunting season now in full swing, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s not a single hotel room available in the whole state during the entire month of November.

There’s more here with additional video here (on regulation) and here (on silver). His basic argument about owning commodities is pretty simple and unchanged for years now – “If the world economy gets better, I earn money on commodities. If the global economy gets worse then they will print more money and I will make money in commodities”.

As for the current situation constituting an “emergency” (recall that the last two SPR releases occurred during the 1991 Gulf War and after Hurricane Katrina in 2005), the opposition party seems to think that the only real emergency is a political one for the Obama Administration.

Oil tumbled to the lowest price in four months after the International Energy Agency said its members would release crude from strategic reserves.

Oil fell as much as 6 percent as the agency announced the release of 60 million barrels to help make up for a Libyan supply disruption. The IEA said 2 million barrels a day would be available in the first 30 days. Commodities and equities tumbled after U.S. jobless claims rose last week and the Federal Reserve cut its economic growth outlook yesterday.

“The big driver is the IEA number,” said Stephen Schork, president of the Schork Group Inc. in Villanova, Pennsylvania. “There’s been a constant string of negative news about the economy and a lack of direction from Washington, which makes for a very volatile market.”

Since it was founded in 1974, this is only the third time that the IEA has taken such an action, the first being the 1991 Gulf War and the second following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said in a statement, “I expect this action will contribute to well-supplied markets and to ensuring a soft landing for the world economy”.

While the former will no doubt improve, I wouldn’t be so sure about the latter…