Be Bolivia 2014, have a water war.
The fact that people are willing to go to war over it demands further respect for its usefulness as an economic model. It is a substance that like land, which has a value as well, that can never diminish in value. Land is difficult to move elsewhere, but water is one of the easiest to store and transport.
As you said its easily created and destroyed. So unlike paper currency it doesn't cost anything to "print". Its not really easily created though, desalinization is incredibly inefficient, at least in the USA.
What you would be able to market, is not your countries supply and ability to produce oil. But the ability to supply and produce potable water.
I think most people have just been brainwashed by Keynesian economics long enough that a logical working solution that has actual inherent value just sounds preposterous.
For instance, why is a house worth more than the land its on? Yet of the two the land only ever increases in value.
Why is a loaf of healthy bread more expensive than a loaf of white bread, when it is less refined, less processed, and has less material in it? Seriously can someone answer that I dont actually know.
Our economic model is confused. Substance trumps content, except when it doesn't. Water is not a commodity, it is a precious resource. True it is not as rare as gold. But it is far more valuable.