Archive for 2008

Pakistan’s $400M Man: Taking Stock of the Risks

As reported by Bloomberg, despite the fact that Pakistan’s recent election heightened the risks for stock investors as opposition parties try to create a new government and force President Pervez Musharraf to step down, Templeton Asset Management Ltd.’s Mark Mobius said he is maintaining his holdings of Pakistani banks, consumer and energy companies and also […]

Read more »



Iran and Gazprom

From Al Alam, news that Iran and Gazprom have agreed upon the terms on developing “two or three” blocks of the South Pars field in the Persian Gulf, a deal that further highlights Moscow’s deepening trade and commercial ties with Tehran.  In fact, as noted in the article, there may be more oil sector cooperation […]

Read more »



Petronas’ Dream Contracts in Uzbekistan: Results of Long-term Planning & Engagement

As adroitly noted in Energy Daily, Malaysia’s Petronas (one of the New “Seven Sisters” which more than ten years ago was already working in Turkmenistan, another hydrocarbon rich nation that Western companies only recently began exploring) seems set to repeat its success in the one Central Asian country with immense potential that has been largely […]

Read more »



Diversification Benefits of Frontier Markets

As reported by The International Herald Tribune, “frontier” markets are gaining even more interest than before in light of the recent turmoil in more developed markets.  As the article notes, what has started to come home to investors is that frontier markets, which are remarkably diverse, have achieved these good returns with low correlation to […]

Read more »



Argentina’s Energy Find

From The Financial Times, news that Pan American Energy – the second largest oil and gas producer in Argentina – has announced the country’s biggest hydrocarbons discovery in recent years and a $1bn investment programme – music to the ears of a government grappling with serious energy and power shortages resulting from President Cristina Fernández […]

Read more »



Dinosaurs at the Tar Pit: Big Oil as Road Kill on The Hydrocarbon Highway?

From The Times (UK), more news on the decline of Big Oil in favour of government-controlled national oil companies in big producer countries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran and Venezuela. The share of the world’s oil reserves controlled by the big Western oil companies, such as BP, Shell and ExxonMobil, has fallen to less […]

Read more »


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.