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NEW YORK (AP) - Rising oil prices have swelled Iran's coffers in recent years, but escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran mean the banknotes flowing in are less likely to be U.S. dollars than euros and yen.

On Tuesday, two major Japanese oil refiners said they had begun buying Iranian crude with yen rather than dollars, mirroring a similar move by the nation's largest oil company last month. Iran last year rekindled plans to create a euro-dominated oil futures exchange that would attempt to rival dollar-based markets in New York and London.

In one corner of the Middle East at least, it seems the petrodollar has lost its punch.

"What Iran has managed to do is really reduce its exposure to dollars," said Bill O'Grady, commodities analyst at A.G. Edwards. "They managed to do it, frankly, without a lot of upset."

Iran's national oil company estimates only about 15 percent of its oil sales are now paid in dollars, according to Peter Zeihan, director of global analysis at private intelligence firm Stratfor. Another 20 percent is priced in yen, with the remainder in euros, he said.

For decades, crude oil contracts have been priced in dollars and remain so around the world. But with the dollar's value falling and trade patterns shifting, oil-producing nations are increasingly receiving deposits in euros, said David Kirsch, manager of the market intelligence service at advisory firm PFC Energy. But, he said, that is unlikely Iran's reason for pulling away from the dollar.

"There is a certain an economic rationale for doing this, but the overwhelming driver pushing Tehran to do this so publicly is pressure from the U.S.," Kirsch said.

Observers said Iran's move against the dollar move is unlikely to have a lasting effect on the U.S. economy, so long as it acts without the support of Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich nations.

"This is not impacting the U.S. in any meaningful way, although it does reduce the demand for the U.S. dollar slightly," Zeihan said. "The U.S. dollar is falling for a number of reasons, and this is somewhere like number 80 on the list."

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