Turkmenistan: A Real Energy Giant?
November 26th, 2014
Via Harvard University’s Belfer Center and? Rice University’s Baker Institute Center for Energy Studies, a very detailed look at Turkmenistan’s energy potential by Martha Brill Olcott, Ph.D. – Senior Associate, Russia and Eurasia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: I. Introduction Turkmenistan has enormous gas reserves, estimated at 13.4 trillion cubic meters (473.2 trillion cubic […]
Read more »China’s Growing Demand For Turkmenistan’s Gas
November 23rd, 2014
Via BBC, a report on China’s growing appetite for Turkmen natural gas: China is a country facing huge environmental challenges as it pursues economic growth. One of its aims is to reduce its dependence on coal and switch to alternative energy sources like gas. So at an energy conference in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, China […]
Read more »North Korea: Open For Business
November 19th, 2014
Via Foreign Policy, an interesting look at Rason, a special economic zone far from the police state in Pyongyang: For the few who have ever been to North Korea, it might be a familiar feeling: that of being inside a country, while at the same time feeling outside of it. Visitors stroll through the streets […]
Read more »Firestone And The Warlord: The Tragedy Of Liberia
November 19th, 2014
Via Pro Publica, an interesting and sad article on the untold story of Firestone, Charles Taylor and the tragedy of Liberia: The killers launched from the plantation under a waning moon one night in October 1992. They surged past tin-roofed villages and jungle hideouts, down macadam roads and red-clay bush trails. More and more joined their […]
Read more »Iraq’s Dubai Hits The Pause Button
November 18th, 2014
Via Foreign Policy, an interesting look at Erbil where, with the Islamic State on their doorstep, Kurdish leaders have scaled back their once grandiose ambitions to focus on ensuring the survival of their enclave: Unused escalators rise up to bare concrete floors in the Ankawa mall; particle-board dividers form makeshift living spaces. Instead of shoppers […]
Read more »Broadband: East Africa’s 21st Century Railway To The World?
November 17th, 2014
Via The Conversation, an interesting commentary on the potential impact fiber connectivity could have upon Africa’s development: The excitement over the potentially transformative effects of the internet in low-income countries is nowhere more evident than in East Africa – the last major populated region of the world to gain a wired connection to the internet. […]
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.