Saudis In, UAE Out? Why Djibouti Has Become The Gulf’s Indispensable Outpost
January 8th, 2026
Via The Africa Report, commentary on how – in the high-stakes game of influence across the Red Sea – Djibouti is playing the Arabian Peninsula’s rival powers off one another to secure its own sovereignty – and its future: “Officially, Djibouti has no quarrel with the United Arab Emirates, nor with Dubai,” insists a government […]
Read more »China Focuses on Africa’s Strategic Trade Routes
January 7th, 2026
Via Reuters, a report on China’s renewed Africa focus on strategic trade routes: China’s FM to visit Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania and Lesotho Trip extends 36-year-old tradition of making first trip to Africa African states looking for investment over loans – analyst China’s top diplomat began his annual New Year tour of Africa on Wednesday, focusing […]
Read more »Is Venezuela a Critical Minerals Target?
January 6th, 2026
Via the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a look at Venezuela’s critical minerals inventory: On December 25, 1956, the New York Times declared, “Venezuela Finds Big Ore Deposits; Geologists Assert Reserves of Minerals May Approach Nation’s Oil in Importance.” Nearly seven decades later, that promise has largely gone unrealized. Far from emerging as a major global […]
Read more »How Chevron Aims to Tap More Oil Below Kazakhstan’s Grassy Plains
January 5th, 2026
Courtesy of The New York Times, a look at how – after spending nearly $50 billion to expand Kazakhstan’s Tengiz oil field – the American oil giant and its partners encounter more uncertainty: More than two miles below the windswept steppe of western Kazakhstan, porous rocks composed of the skeletons of coral and other ancient […]
Read more »Egypt To Develop Djibouti’s Port In Bid To Pressure Ethiopia Over Nile Dam
January 2nd, 2026
Via The National News, a report on Egypt’s deal to develop Djibouti’s port in a bid to pressure Ethiopia over the GERD Nile dam: Egypt’s Deputy Prime Minister Kamel El Wazir concluded a milestone visit to Djibouti this week, where he finalised a deal to develop the Doraleh port on the Gulf of Aden. The Egyptian […]
Read more »The Berbera Gambit: How Somaliland’s Port is Redrawing the Map of the Horn
January 1st, 2026
Via The Africa Report, commentary on how Israel’s recognition of Somaliland has ignited a regional firestorm, but the real struggle is for control of the maritime gateways and security corridors flanking the Red Sea: The three giant ship-to-shore cranes towering over Somaliland’s Gulf of Aden coast are more than just tools of logistics. For DP World, […]
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.