The interview came after Bloomberg reported that Russia could set up its own mechanism for pricing its Urals crude as opposed to relying on the global Brent oil benchmark.
The aim of using Russia's currency for pricing crude is to increase oil revenues and get away from quoting petroleum in US dollars.
"The bottom line is that China, Russia and OPEC would like to see oil priced in some currency other than the US dollar. They want to see the US dollar no longer being the world reserve currency, and I believe that eventually and unfortunately for the US it is going to be the reality," Pento said.
According to him, OPEC would react positively if oil were to be priced in Russian rubles.
"As I have already said, they would love to see the oil being priced in any other currency rather than the US dollar. It may be the currency of Russia, Venezuela, Iran or any other country. They want to be able to sell oil locally in domestic currency," Pento pointed out.
He said that Russia's largest oil companies, including Rosneft, Lukoil, and Gazprom Neft support the plan and may become market makers. The Bank of Russia will also reportedly take part in the project.
The financial industry regulator is preparing legislative amendments to grant non-Russian firms access to exchange-traded commodities and their derivatives to attract traders.
