Ruili on Edge: A Chinese Border City Loses Its Mojo
January 29th, 2025
Via The Diplomat, an article on how a onetime boom-town has struggled to adapt to domestic policy shifts, anti-fraud campaigns, and the escalating civil war across the border in Myanmar: On January 5, the 2024 Ruili China and Muse Myanmar Cross-Border Marathon came to an end. This event, marked by its distinctive “One Marathon, Two […]
Read more »World’s First WhatsAppocracy: Government By Social Media in Somalia
January 29th, 2025
Via The Economist, a look at how cheap data, social media and creativity are filling in for an absent state: Thirty years ago, making a phone call from Somalia meant crossing the border into better-connected Kenya or Ethiopia. Yet by 2004 the lawless nation had more telephone connections per capita than any other east African country. […]
Read more »Chevron Sees 1M Barrels Per Day From Kazakhstan
January 27th, 2025
Via Fortune, a report on U.S. energy giant Chevron’s expectations of a 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day from Kazakhstan’s Tengiz oil field, which is among the world’s biggest. Meanwhile, an Exxon executive downplayed hopes for a sudden surge of LNG exports. U.S. energy giant Chevron expects Kazakhstan’s Tengiz oil field, one of the largest […]
Read more »US-China On Very Real Collision Course Over Panama Canal
January 27th, 2025
Via Asia Times, a look at the growing US-China tensions over the Panama Canal: United States President Donald Trump’s recent pledges to reclaim the Panama Canal have signaled rising US-China tensions in Latin America, America’s resource-rich backyard and traditional sphere of influence. After Trump said in his January 20 inauguration speech that it is time for the […]
Read more »Saudi Arabia Set To Buy Stake In Pakistan Copper and Gold Mining Project
January 26th, 2025
Courtesy of The Financial Times, a report on Saudi Arabia’s plans to purchase up to 20% share in $9bn complex as it looks to accelerate its diversification away from oil: Saudi Arabia’s investment mining fund is set to buy a stake in Pakistan’s Reko Diq project, which will be one of the world’s largest copper […]
Read more »Ecuador Eyes $42B In Oil Sector Investments Through 2029
January 26th, 2025
Via Reuters, a report on Ecuador’s planned oil investments through 2029: Ecuador expects foreign oil companies to invest around $42 billion in the sector over the next five years, acting Energy Minister Ines Manzano said on Wednesday, as part of President Daniel Noboa’s plan to boost production. The country’s oil production has gradually fallen in […]
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.