Petrodollars: Definition, History, Uses
What Are Petrodollars? Petrodollars are crude oil export revenues denominated in U.S. dollars. The term gained currency in the mid-1970s when soaring oil prices generated large trade and current account surpluses for oil exporting countries. Then as now, oil sales and the resulting current account surpluses were denominated in dollars because the U.S. dollar was—and remains—by