Scramble for Africa…The “Final Frontier” of Conventional Sources of Oil
January 25th, 2008
As reported by Reuters, high oil prices and the onslaught of resource nationalism from Russia to South America have sent Western majors delving ever deeper into the waters of the Gulf of Guinea, triggering a new scramble for Africa. As the article notes: “…Unlike more established oil-producing regions, the Gulf of Guinea offers easy access […]
Read more »The European Pipeline War: Serbia, Bulgaria, Russia, and the World
January 24th, 2008
As noted by Steve LeVine at his Oil & Glory blog, Vladimir Putin recently racked up another in a string of unbroken victories in the European Pipeline War as Gazprom purchased a majority stake in the state oil company, NIS, and joined Russia’s South Stream Pipeline consortium. Last week, Bulgaria signed onto South Stream as […]
Read more »Dinosaurs at the Tar Pit (4) / Needed: A Refined Approach to Refining
January 24th, 2008
Another day and more articles on the demise of Big Oil and the rise of The Seven Sisters. As Rig Zone points out: “…Three years ago, the top six names on the PFC Energy 50 ranking of the world’s largest oil & gas industry companies were ExxonMobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Chevron and Eni. […]
Read more »Dinosaurs at the Tar Pit (3): Energy’s Center of Power & Resource Nationalism Is On The Move
January 23rd, 2008
As noted in today’s Financial Times, the story of energy in the 21st century has been the relative decline of the developed world as both a producer and a consumer. We have been following this trend for some time now, keeping a close eye on The New Seven Sisters in particular. As the article reports: […]
Read more »Next Stop: Jupiter — Brazil’s ‘Huge’ Gas Field Find
January 23rd, 2008
As reported by BBC, a huge natural gas field has been found a short distance off Rio de Janeiro’s coastline, another recent find which could help turn Brazil into even more of a leading global energy supplier. According to Petrobras, the company believes the new field, Jupiter, could match the recently discovered Tupi oil field […]
Read more »Dialing for Dollars (or Dirhams?): Gulf Arab Telcos Expanding Their Area Codes
January 21st, 2008
Two recent reports on Gulf Arab telecom operators continuing their expansionist trends out of their home markets, where most have been riding a wave of economic growth spurred by a five-fold increase in oil prices since 2002. First, an article detailing Saudi Telecom’s – the largest Arab telecom firm by market value – $2.6 billion […]
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.