The Race for Turkmenistan’s Reserves
September 16th, 2007
While Kazakhstan gets most of the press, perhaps the most interesting country in Central Asia – from a strategic hydrocarbon reserve perspective – is Turkmenistan. As this article notes, Turkmenistan’s vast natural gas stores are spurring a scramble between Russia, China, the U.S. and Europe for access to its reserves. “…Executives from Chevron Corp., Royal […]
Read more »Gazprom, Russia’s International Energy Leverage, and a Predetermined Gas War
September 14th, 2007
An excellent overview of Gazprom via The Independent, focusing primarily on Russia’s use of Gazprom as a means of projecting political power throughout the region. While the piece, by Anne Penketh, concludes that Gazprom – due to internal inefficiency and corruption – may ultimately end up being a paper tiger, she does point out that […]
Read more »The Nigerian Petroleum Co. – Nigeria’s Aramco?
September 14th, 2007
News from the Energy Daily that Nigeria will replace the Nigerian National Petroleum Co. with the Nigerian Petroleum Co., which analysts say will function more like a state-owned oil firm modeled after Saudi Arabia’s Aramco rather than a government agency. “….Nigeria’s energy minister, who only assumed his new post six weeks ago, said foreign oil […]
Read more »Gazprom’s Vertical Ambitions … At Home and Abroad?
September 13th, 2007
The International Herald Tribune speculated about Gazprom’s vertical ambitions in a short note today. According to the report, “….Gazprom, which is controlled by the Russian government, wants to buy a major stake in Mosenergo, Moscow’s main energy supplier. In the short term, this might not affect consumers too much. They may even benefit, if Gazprom […]
Read more »Venezuela and China Increase Ties
September 13th, 2007
Today’s Energy Daily reports that Venezuela and China are expanding their oil ties, with their respective state petroleum companies stating that they will spend more than $10 billion to develop the oil-rich Faja del Orinoco region. President Hugo Chavez also said earlier this week Venezuelan state-owned energy firm PDVSA would collaborate with China National Petroleum […]
Read more »Al Noor Islamic Bank and The Middle East: An Aptly-Named Investing “Hot House”
September 12th, 2007
A pair of interesting articles on the rise of Middle Eastern financial institutions, courtesy of the WSJ. First, was Gregory Corcoran’s comments on Dubai’s ruling sheik’s plans to open an investment bank – Al Noor Islamic Bank – that will compete in the Middle East and Africa and eventually move in on Europe and the […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.