Kremlin’s Grip on Russia’s Vast Expanse Complicates Vladivostok’s Ambitions To Become Trading Powerhouse
October 5th, 2025
Via the New York Times, a look at how – in a country where power is highly centralized – Moscow sets the tone for Vladivostok, 4,000 miles away, complicating longstanding ambitions to make it a trading powerhouse. At first glance, Vladivostok, Russia’s maritime stronghold and main trading hub on the Pacific, seems hardly Russian at […]
Read more »The China-Russia Axis Is Getting Firmer, and It’s Built on Gas
October 4th, 2025
Via Foreign Policy, a report on how Moscow pivoted to the east a decade ago, but it is now besmitten—or captive. An interesting thing happened late this summer: Russia and China dramatically deepened their energy relationship, less for economic reasons than for geopolitical ones. The ramifications, not so much for energy markets but for international […]
Read more »Cocoa OPEC on Spot as Ghana Wobbles and Ecuador Rises
October 3rd, 2025
Via The Africa Report, a look at how the cocoa OPEC is on the spot as Ghana wobbles and Ecuador rises: Abidjan banks on volume, while Accra fights to hold second place into 2026-2027. Belief in a cocoa ‘OPEC’, despite headwinds. That was the mood on 1 October in Abidjan at the launch of the […]
Read more »Shanghai, Mumbai, Dubai or Goodbye
October 1st, 2025
Via Emerging World, a look at how a visit to Jebel Ali port in Dubai is like looking under the hood of globalization: “Do you own a glass building?” “Well, no, unfortunately I do not,” I told the bright-faced and enthusiastic Chinese woman whom I had just met a few minutes earlier. “Mabel” – her […]
Read more »Trump Opens Trade Finance Spigot for American Deals in Western Sahara
September 28th, 2025
Via The Africa Report, an article on the fact that US lenders DFC and EXIM have received the green light to back American investment in the disputed territory: The Donald Trump administration says it will start assisting American companies looking to invest in Western Sahara, delivering on a promise made five years ago when the US president […]
Read more »In Senegal’s Shadow, The Gambia Still Waits In Hope For Oil
September 25th, 2025
Via The Africa Report, a look at The Gambia’s petroleum dreams: Caught between its next-door neighbour’s oil boom and its own string of dry wells, The Gambia, one of Africa’s smallest nations, has seen oil become as much about politics and perception as geology. For more than a decade, The Gambia has chased the prospect of black […]
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.