Archive for June, 2020

The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Transport Corridor Stretches Further Into China

Via The Diplomat, an article on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Transport Corridor which is in use and has great potential, but the middle section through Kyrgyzstan still transports cargo via trucks and not railcars: China continues to diversify its land transportation options, and the Central Asian states are proactive players willing to tap into the opportunity to become […]

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Central Asian Nations Want To Kick-Start The BRI

Via the Lowy Institute, an article on how Central Asia’s economic fortunes are increasingly bound to Beijing: For China, the Covid-19 question is answered by more Belt and Road. As Foreign Minister Wang Yi put it at a press conference during the 13th National People’s Congress in Beijing last weekend: The impact of Covid-19 on the Belt and […]

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Moscow Ready to Play Karakalpak Card Again to Gain Access to New Uzbek Oil Fields

Courtesy of The Jamestown Foundation, a look at Russia’s efforts to gain access to new oil fields in Uzbekistan: Borders remain in dispute throughout Central Asia, with Moscow paying such close attention that governments in the region now feel the need to warn the Russian authorities not to become involved (Ritmeurasia.org, June 5). Often Moscow […]

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China Could Ultimately Displace Western Majors as Key Player in Caspian Oil Fields

Via The Jamestown Foundation, an interesting commentary on whether China can play a bigger role in the Caspian’s petroleum future: Twenty-six years ago, on September 20, 1994, Azerbaijan signed an accord with a consortium of ten international oil companies to develop its fields on the Caspian Shelf, an event that both Baku and the West […]

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Can China’s Belt and Road Initiative Survive COVID-19?

Via The Economist, an updated look at China’s Belt & Road Initiative: “Just over a year ago, at a gathering in Beijing of world leaders who had signed up to his Belt and Road Initiative (bri), China’s president, Xi Jinping, peppered his speech with proverbs. “The ceaseless inflow of rivers makes the ocean deep,” was […]

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Syria: A Future Notch on China’s BRI?

Via Eurasia Review, an article on how Syria could become a key node in China’s infrastructure, telecommunications and energy-driven Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): China looms large as a potentially key player alongside Russia and Iran in President Bashas al-Assad’s post-war Syria. With Russia and Iran lacking the financial muscle and the United States and […]

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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.