Money & Finance › Currencies, the dollar & crypto › The petrodollar: oil priced in dollars since the 1974 US–Saudi deal
The false 2024 claim that the petrodollar deal 'expired'
June 2024· Concept
Fringe or discreditedOutside the mainstream, unproven, or shown false.
A viral June 2024 claim that a 50-year US–Saudi 'petrodollar agreement' had expired; no such agreement or deadline existed.
See it on the Money & Finance map →How it works
Posts said a pact signed June 8, 1974 lapsed on June 9, 2024, freeing Saudi Arabia to sell oil in other currencies. The real June 8, 1974 document set up a joint commission on economic cooperation; it said nothing about oil currency and had no end date. The 1974 Treasury investment arrangement was secret, informal and open-ended. Saudi Arabia was always free to price oil in any currency, still sells it for dollars, and keeps its riyal pegged at 3.75 per dollar.
Why it matters
It shows how de-dollarization stories can spread faster than the records behind them; nothing changed in oil pricing that day.
Facts, rules and data
The 1974 joint statement's text, declassified Treasury cables, and debunkings by economists and fact-checkers in June 2024.
Debates and risks
Exactly how the claim started; it spread through social media and crypto sites before some news outlets repeated it.
Connections (2)
▸The false 2024 claim that the petrodollar deal 'expired' wrongly claims a 50-year term for The petrodollar: oil priced in dollars since the 1974 US–Saudi dealFact, law or data
The connection
The myth borrowed the petrodollar's real 1974 origin and invented a 50-year expiry. The real arrangement was never a treaty with a term; it was an informal investment deal plus OPEC's long habit of pricing oil in dollars, which continued unchanged after June 2024.
When and why
Spread online in early June 2024, around the 50th anniversary of the 1974 joint statement.
How we know
The 1974 documents contain no expiry or currency clause, and Saudi oil kept trading in dollars.
Debates and risks
Whether the US–Saudi security relationship, not any document, is what still underpins dollar oil pricing.
▸The false 2024 claim that the petrodollar deal 'expired' is a staple of hype about De-dollarization and BRICS alternativesFact, law or data
The connection
Stories of a dollar collapse feed on dramatic turning points. The false expiry claim was shared widely as proof that Saudi Arabia was leaving the dollar, alongside rumors of an imminent BRICS currency. It shows how real but slow trends get exaggerated.
When and why
June 2024, on social media and some financial and crypto websites.
How we know
Fact-checks at the time, and continued dollar pricing of Saudi crude afterward.
Debates and risks
How much such hype affects real decisions by investors or governments.