Years ago, why did the United States want oil priced in US dollars?

Is their an advantage to this, other than the convenience of purchasing the oil in our own dollars? Do we benefit in any other way?Years ago, why did the United States want oil priced in US dollars?
Until recently, with the launch of the Euro, the Dollar simple had no competitor in the international currency market. Even gold was fixed to the dollar by the Bretton Woods agreement in the aftermath of WWII. Even after Nixon took the US off of the gold standard the dollar has been the world reserve currency of choice; the dollar is/was seen worldwide as a stable store of value. Thuis, it was natural to price not only oil, but a variety of commodities in dollars.





Alas, all good things come to an end. The domestic monetary policy of the US is increasingly destroying the value of the dollar. The rise of the Euro has also given the dollar a competitor. I would not be suprised to see oil price in Eures in the next decade or so.





OPersonally, I am an advocate of a return to the gold standrad - it is the ultimate tool in instilling fiscal discipline to a wildly out of control drunken-sailor on shore leave spening government, but that is a rant for another answer.Years ago, why did the United States want oil priced in US dollars?
All the countries that buy oil have to keep large US dollar reserves in order to have the money to pay for oil. And no country is going hide all those US dollars under the mattress. They put their US dollars to work by buying US Treasury's and other liquid investment vehicles.





This puts the US government in a good position to indirectly tax foreigners. When the US government prints extra US dollars and keeps the interest rate below the inflation rate. Then everyone who holds a lot of US dollars ends up loosing some purchasing power to the US government. Which the US government uses to its advantage and to the advantage of US citizens.
Commodities can be traded in any currency. But since the United States has the biggest market, you will typically find Oil and other commodities traded in Dollars. There is no global mandate for this, its just the free market determining that US Dollars are the most sound and stable currency in which to conduct international business.





You wouldn't want to trade Oil in Mexican Pesos, then have the Mexican Govt fall into Default, devalue its currency, and you lose billions, would you? That is why just about everything that is globally traded is qouted in Dollars.