Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez instructed Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state oil company, to convert its investment accounts from dollars to euros and Asian currencies to reduce risk.

Chavez, speaking in his weekly address on national television, said the U.S. has bought goods from around the world, paying with paper that is ``a bubble.''

Chavez said he instructed Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez to change currencies because of concerns sparked in August when the Federal Reserve increased the U.S. money supply after lending declined over concerns about debt backed by sub- prime mortgages.

The world's oil trading system has primarily used dollars for decades, helping to make the dollar into a global currency. Iran in July requested yen rather than dollars for all shipments to Japan, boosting that currency.

Petroleos de Venezuela had $23 billion in current assets, including $1.88 billion in cash, $848 million in restricted cash and $9.55 billion in accounts receivable, at the end of 2006, according to its audited financial statement. In addition, the company finances the national development fund known as Fonden, which held $27.3 billion as of May 11.

Venezuela moved some of its international reserves into euros last year, along with other oil producers including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar.

Chavez speaks frequently about the need to increase his country's independence from the U.S., which he calls ``the empire.'' He has sought to diversify his country's customer base for oil by signing supply contracts with Japan and China.

Ramirez said Sept. 11 that Venezuela and China will work together on a $10 billion project to build six refineries and a shipping company to make Venezuela one of China's most important suppliers. Still, the U.S. continues to import 1.36 million barrels a day of crude and refined products from Venezuela, more than half its estimated 2.4 million barrels a day of output.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Bodzin in Caracas at sbodzin@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 16, 2007 21:05 EDT