I recall when Russia wanted to purchase oil from the UAE, but due to sanctions Russia can’t conduct the transaction in dollars (often or not is used as the intermediary). Instead the Dirham was used as a replacement currency to acquire it, however it involved exchanging each other’s currency. I mean, why can’t just countries use each other’s own currency to purchase oil to steer away from the petro-dollar?
In that case, counties will just exchange each other’s money directly (like for instance if Germany wants oil from Oman, then the transaction is done via Rial to Euro and vice versa) would that mean it’ll be a multipolar economy since each nation uses their own currency to pay for the imports rather than using US Dollars so much? That was the move BRICS used on them trying to not rely on USD a lot.
Because Nixon and Kissinger made a deal with the Saudis to conduct all their oil transactions in dollars in exchange for military protection.
The dollar was probably the most desirable currency for international transactions before that though. The USA was the largest economy by far, and USD was convertible to gold at a fixed rate.