Crude Vision: An American Oil Empire Is A Flawed Idea
January 17th, 2026
Via The Economist, a look at Donald Trump’s expansive ambitions and limited plans: JUST HOURS after America captured Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator, on January 3rd, President Donald Trump clarified his motivation. “The oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time,” he said. America would “spend billions of dollars, […]
Read more »Who Will Cash In On Venezuelan Oil?
January 13th, 2026
Via The Economist, a look at who will cash in on Venezuelan oil? “Obviously at the front of the pack.” That is how Scott Bessent, America’s treasury secretary, describes Chevron’s position among the growing band of investors hoping to profit from Venezuela’s oil. A desire to reopen the industry to his country’s oilmen played no small […]
Read more »The Manager-Monarch Who Saved Oman
January 13th, 2026
Courtesy of Foreign Policy, a report on Oman’s new(ish) sultan who doesn’t do spectacle. He does spreadsheets. And it’s working. Six years ago this month, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq inherited a country on the brink. Oman’s beloved ruler of nearly half a century had just died, oil prices had cratered, the COVID-19 pandemic was about […]
Read more »Russia, France and the US: The High-Stakes Scramble for Madagascar
January 13th, 2026
Via The Africa Report, a look at how a recent visit to Madagascar by a Russian delegation led by the head of Africa Corps has sparked domestic controversy. But Moscow is far from the only power courting President Michaël Randrianirina in a bid to secure economic and strategic interests: “Threat alert in Madagascar.” With these […]
Read more »Trump Is Making a Power Play in Latin America. China Is Already There.
January 12th, 2026
Courtesy of the New York Times, a look at how China built a dominant strategic position in the region as the leading lender and trading partner, and it is watching President Trump’s next moves closely. For China, President Trump’s power grab in Venezuela is a frontal attack on a longstanding source of oil, cultivated through […]
Read more »Can Trump Make Venezuela an Oil Giant Again?
January 12th, 2026
Via the Wall Street Journal, commentary on President Trump’s desire to have U.S. oil companies return to Venezuela in a big way, but the petrostate’s turbulent history suggests formidable challenges ahead: “No one was paying any attention to Venezuelan oil two weeks ago,” a longtime oilman said to me the other day, “but now everyone […]
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.