Brazil’s Pre-Salt Oilfields: Larger Than Initially Thought
November 8th, 2008
As recently reported by The Financial Times, Brazil’s newly discovered “pre-salt” oilfields may contain more than 100bn barrels, Haroldo Lima, head of the industry regulatory. As the article notes: “…If so, the new fields would propel Brazil up the world league table of oil producing nations. Brazil currently has reserves of about 12.6bn barrels (or […]
Read more »Russia: CPC Down; Kazakhstan-China Pipeline To Go
November 6th, 2008
Via Stratfor, a detailed analysis of the implications arising from Russia increasing its share in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) to 31 percent after buying a 7 percent stake from Oman. The Kremlin has now reached its objective in controlling a key east-west oil pipeline in Central Asia, giving Russia even greater leverage in tampering […]
Read more »Pipeline Politics Is One of the Main Driving Forces in the Caucasus
November 5th, 2008
As recently reported by Russia Profile, peacemaking efforts by Turkey and the Minsk group of the OSCE aimed at settling the Karabakh conflict have an obvious energy motive as the EU’s plans to achieve energy independence from Russia directly depend on a small territory that Armenia and Azerbaijan are fighting over. As the article notes: […]
Read more »Azeri Efforts to Manage European & Russian Interests In Its Resources
November 5th, 2008
Via The International Herald Tribune, an interesting look at Azerbaijan’s efforts to play Europe and Russia off against each other during the tug-of-war over over Azerbaijan’s energy resources. As the article notes: “…Over the past two months, Russia and the United States, acting with the Europeans, have stepped up their attentions to this mostly Muslim […]
Read more »Iran, Dubai, and Economic Sanctions
November 2nd, 2008
An interesting article in The New York Times Magazine on the strategy and impact of economic sanctions against Iran. As the article notes, the idea is to prevent a country reliant on global trade — as an ancient empire, a station on the Silk Road across Asia and a modern petroleum powerhouse — from being […]
Read more »Cuba and Brazil: Cooperating on Offshore Exploration
November 2nd, 2008
As ably reported by the St. Petersburg Times, Brazilian president Inacio Lula da Silva recently signed an agreement between his country’s state oil company, Petrobras, and its Cuban counterpart, Cupet, to explore for oil in waters off Cuba’s north coast. As the article notes: “…Details on the oil agreement have not yet been made public. […]
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.