East Timor : From Democratic Success to Failed Petro-State
October 18th, 2020
Via Asia Nikkei, commentary on how East Timor went from democratic success to failed petro-state: “Like Bali before the tourism boom.” That is how I described East Timor — a young country brimming with hope — when I first arrived there to work as a correspondent in 2009. The factional violence of 2006-2008 had finally ended and […]
Read more »Tajikistan: Is Energy Export The Only Way Out of The Revenue Dilemma?
October 18th, 2020
Via Central Asian Bureau for Analytical Reporting, analysis of Tajikistan’s energy sector: Low revenues and underdeveloped infrastructure are among various problems inscribed in Tajikistan’s energy sector. The authorities are seeking to invest in hydroenergy, which, as believed, will pave the way towards reaching the status of regional energy exporter. The issue of unreliable energy supply […]
Read more »How China Can Tighten Its Belt and Road Initiative In Central Asia
October 18th, 2020
Via South China Morning Post, commentary on how China should veer away from large-scale, top-down investments and seek to work with local companies to build sustainable projects that benefit Central Asians and minimize government corruption: This February, hundreds of residents of At-Bashy, a mountain town in Kyrgyzstan, gathered to protest against the construction of a new […]
Read more »Kazakhstan: Economy In Transition
October 18th, 2020
Via Global Finance, an article on how Kazakhstan’s evolution to a market economy hinges on diversifying away from oil and gas, with a lift from FDI: Kazakhstan occupies a position halfway between two systems, says Yerlik Karazhan, an independent economic analyst in Nur-Sultan, the nation’s capital. No longer a Soviet-style command economy, “We’re definitely going […]
Read more »COVID-19 Wipes Out East Timor’s Dreams of Oil and Gas Riches
October 18th, 2020
Via Nikkei Asia, a report on Timor Leste: COVID-19 and the global collapse in oil and gas prices appear to have put the final nail into the coffin of East Timor’s long-held dream to create a domestic petroleum industry that would end its dependence on foreign aid and secure its viability as a sovereign state. […]
Read more »The United States Answer To China’s BRI In Africa: Financing ISIS In Mozambique As An Alternative To Russian LNG
October 16th, 2020
Via Silk Road Briefing, an OpEd on Mozambique: The US EXIM bank has jumped back into global financial circles by making its first multi-billion direct loan. This 86 year old organization was dormant during 2012-2016 after the US Senate failed to renew its charter in 2012, however the Trump administration reconstituted the board quorum in May 2019, with […]
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.