Somaliland: Oil First, Recognition Later
October 31st, 2012
Via The Financial Times, a report on oil exploration in Somaliland: It’s not a country recognised by anyone other than its own government, but that doesn’t seem to phase three oil companies scaling up exploration in Somaliland. UK-listed Genel Energy and Ophir Energy, and Australia-listed Jacka Resources, are starting to explore for oil in earnest […]
Read more »Vladimir Putin: The New Global Shah Of Oil
October 29th, 2012
Via Forbes, an interesting article on the impact of Rosneft’s planned purchase of TNK-BP: Exxon Mobil is no longer the world’s number-one oil producer. As of last week, that title belongs to Putin Oil Corp – oh, whoops. I mean the title belongs to Rosneft, Russia’s state-controlled oil company. Rosneft is buying TNK-BP, which is […]
Read more »Has The Time Come For A Kabul Stock Exchange?
October 29th, 2012
Via Time magazine, an interesting article on the possibility of an Afghan stock exchange: The project seems, at the least, ill-advised: establishing Afghanistan’s first ever stock exchange amid the uncertainties of security and the suffocating presence of official corruption. But that is exactly what two young Afghans want to do. Ahmad Bassam and his partner […]
Read more »How ExxonMobil’s God Pod Beat Iraq’s Oil Chieftains At Their Own Game
October 27th, 2012
Via Foreign Policy, an interesting look at ExxonMobil’s recent signing of six exploration contracts in Kurdistan: In 2006, an Iraqi technocrat named Tariq Shafiq was charged with crafting an oil law. A Berkeley-trained engineer, he began his career in the 1950s, rising through the consortium of foreign firms that comprised the Iraq Petroleum Company — […]
Read more »Indian Challenges: Fragmentation & Infrastructure
October 26th, 2012
Courtesy of Emerging Markets Insights, commentary on issues that must be addressed for multinationals to succeed in India: 1. Fragmentation: Multinationals have to move out of the traditional Tier-1 cities in order to adapt to India’s unique urbanization trend: The rise of manufacturing in rural India has led to robust job and wealth growth, which […]
Read more »From Mass to Mainstream: Keeping Pace With China’s Rapidly Changing Consumers
October 24th, 2012
McKinsey has published a very interesting study on the Chinese market and segmentation: 2012 Annual Chinese Consumer Report From Mass to Mainstream: Keeping Pace With China’s Rapidly Changing Consumers. Here is the summary: As living standards in China continue to advance, its vast consumer market is undergoing fundamental change. Most significant is the increasing manifestation […]
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.