Archive for 2008

Oil Rich Nations Place Their Bets

Found a highly insightful article in the recent Harvard Business Review (subscription required) which examines where oil-rich Gulf countries are investing staggering sums brought about by the combination of the gigantic American trade deficit and the price of oil at more than $125 per barrel which have created an attendant pool of financial liquidity among […]

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Axis of Commerce

Via Portfolio Magazine, an interesting look at how U.S. companies are using Dubai as an illegal conduit into Iran. “…Despite sanctions aimed at stemming the sales of U.S. products to Iran, the goods are still getting there. U.S. sanctions were first imposed against Iran in 1979, during the hostage crisis. The current embargo dates back […]

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Will India Be Imperial in Russia’s Far North?

Via The Financial Times, an update on India’s bid for Imperial Oil’s Russian assets that we have discussed before.  As the article notes:that “…only two events could delay the final curtain [to India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp agreed bid]. One would be a decision by the Russian authorities to block state-controlled ONGC on antitrust […]

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Betting on Iraq’s Economy: The Next Surge?

Received an interesting email blast from Nicholas Vardy’s Global Guru and, while I normally read such with high degrees of skepticism since they are aimed at selling something, I thought some of his comments may spark interest in this market.  Per the report: “…While the media begrudgingly admits the success of the U.S. military “surge,” […]

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Azerbaijan: Facing a New Energy Landscape

Via Stratfor (subscription required), an insightful look at Azerbaijan and the new energy landscape facing it in light of Russia’s military defeat of Georgia. As the article notes: “…Russia’s military defeat of Georgia puts Azerbaijan in a difficult position. With all of its existing energy export routes now back under Russian control, Baku faces a […]

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The Pipeline War?

As noted by Robert Amsterdam in his ever insightful blog, Russia’s invasion of Georgia is mostly about seizing control of the only energy conduit threatening their monopoly of supply from Central Asia to Europe. As his blog notes and this piece from the Globe and Mail concludes: “…Georgia is a crucial transit point for oil […]

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ABOUT
WILDCATS AND BLACK SHEEP
Wildcats & Black Sheep is a personal interest blog dedicated to the identification and evaluation of maverick investment opportunities arising in frontier - and, what some may consider to be, “rogue” or “black sheep” - markets around the world.

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.