Total Exit from Iran
July 12th, 2008
Via The New York Times, news that Total, the French oil giant, has decided to back away from planned investments in Iran because of political uncertainty. As the article notes: “…Total’s withdrawal from the country, including a planned huge gas project in the South Pars gas field, makes it the last major Western oil company […]
Read more »Libya and Egypt: More Investment/More Positioning
July 12th, 2008
Courtesy of Stratfor (subscription required), news that Libya recently announced a deal involving the development of an oil refinery and gasoline stations in Egypt, as well as a natural gas pipeline running from the Egyptian city of Alexandria to the coastal Libyan city of Tobruk. As the article notes: “…This energy agreement could boost Libyan […]
Read more »Caspian Pipeline Politics: Gazprom’s Monopolistic Actions Backfiring
July 7th, 2008
 As we have discussed many times previously, the existing pipeline architecture of Central Asia represents the regional imperialism of Cold War Russia, despite Turkmen and Kazakh flirtations with new Trans-Caspian pipeline projects to Azerbaijan to circumvent the Russian control over exports to Western Europe. A recent article by Robert M. Cutler of Carleton University in […]
Read more »India & Iran: Gas Pipeline Project
July 4th, 2008
From AFP, a report that India expects to finalize a deal “by next month” on a pipeline that will transport gas from Iran. According to the article, Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora said:  “The only one issue is where to take the delivery, the delivery point. We wanted it on the border of India and […]
Read more »Libya & Egypt: Refining Relations
July 4th, 2008
Via Stratfor, news that Libyan Prime Minister al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi said that Libya is planning to invest $10 billion in Egypt over the next two years including the development of an oil refinery in Alexandria and a natural gas pipeline that will run between Alexandria and Tobruk. The refinery would have a capacity of 250,000 […]
Read more »Angola’s Oil Future
July 2nd, 2008
From The Oil Drum, an excellent analysis of Angola’s oil future. As the article notes: “Angola is one of the few oil producing countries with a bright future ahead. Decades of war prevented the country from developing its energy resources properly, but is now becoming one of the largest world oil exporters in a period […]
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.