Archive for 2008

Go, Go, GOPEC…

Via The Financial Times, a report on the recent meeting of gas exporting countries during which ministers meeting in Moscow transformed what had been an occasional talking shop into a formal body with a permanent secretariat.  While, for now, Russia is probably right that “GOPEC” cannot control output and prices, (unlike oil, natural gas relies […]

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China Energy Companies: Go East (and North, South, and West) Young Man!

Via Stratfor (subscription required), a report that China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) and other Chinese energy companies are actively hunting for new investments in foreign oil and natural gas projects.  As the article notes: “…The combination of a global credit shortage and low oil prices has left many energy firms around the world in dire […]

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LUKoil’s Iberian Ambitions

Via Stratfor (subscription required), an update on Lukoil’s dalliance’s with Repsol YPF. As we have discussed previously, LUKoil, Russia’s largest privately-owned oil firm, is considering forming a partnership with Spanish energy company Repsol YPF. As the article notes: “…Spain’s Repsol YPF, a privately owned energy company with major assets in Latin America, and LUKoil, Russia’s […]

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Calling Pyongyang … Orascom Eyes Cell Phone Venture in North Korea

Via The Financial Times, news that Orascom is looking at setting up a mobile phone venture in North Korea.  As the article notes “…Setting up a mobile phone service in North Korea – an authoritarian state that has banned mobiles – may sound like a misguided venture but Egypt’s Orascom reckons it can defy conventional […]

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A Future Middle East of Failed States?

Via The Asia Times, a highly pessimistic look at the economies of the largest Muslim countries, namely Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey.  While I do not wholly agree with the thesis of the piece, I felt it useful to present The Times’ views.  As the article notes: “…Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinejad controls Iran through a kleptocracy […]

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Iran’s Faltering Economy: Grasping at Foreign Current Debt “Straws”

Via Stratfor (subscription required), an insightful analysis of Iran’s current economic dilemma as the price of oil — Iran’s main source of revenue — has plunged dramatically in recent months.  As the article notes: “…Iran’s central bank has given permission to banks to issue foreign currency debt instruments as part of an effort to attract […]

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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.