Author Archive

Malaysia, Congo, Chad Want To Join OPEC

Via Oil Price.com, a report on some new countries’ ambitions to join OPEC: Chad, Congo, and Malaysia are all lining up to join OPEC, Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, the energy minister of the cartel’s newest member Equatorial Guinea, told Russian outlet Sputnik on the sidelines of the CERAWeek conference in Houston on Wednesday.  In Africa, countries like […]

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Turkmenistan’s Plan B: Electricity Exports

Via Times of Asia, a report on Turkmenistan’s plan to export power to augment its natural gas sales: As prospects to diversify, and increase, natural-gas exports remain uncertain and rather long-term, Turkmenistan is taking steps to increase the generation and export of electrical power — which would face obstacles as well. We are republishing this […]

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Afghanistan Breaks Ground on 1,127-Mile ‘Peace Pipeline’

Courtesy of the New York Times, a report on the latest developments around the TAPI pipeline: One of the boldest efforts to date to stabilize Afghanistan through economic development began on Friday with a ceremonial start to construction on a $22.5 billion natural gas pipeline crossing the country’s war-ravaged south. The pipeline, known as TAPI […]

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Gwadar vs. Chabahar

Via The Pakistan Observer, a look at the nascent competition between Gwadar and Chabahar ports: Pakistan’s signing of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) with China is a milestone of economic cooperation between the two countries. It is expected that this Corridor would boost Pakistan’s ailing economy in the years to come. Gwadar, a strategic warm […]

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Once-Repressive Uzbekistan In From The Investor Cold?

Via The Financial Times, a report on Uzbekistan: In Uzbekistan’s ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand, near the blue-domed madrassas of central Registan Square, young Uzbeks still jostle for selfies by the statue of a local boy made good, the late dictator Islam Karimov. But, 17 months after Karimov’s death, there are signs that a […]

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TAPI Enters Afghan Phase with Little Cash and Many Problems

Via Eurasianet, commentary on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline project: It is the natural gas pipeline project that many have long said could never happen. But the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, or TAPI for short, is taking another important step forward this month with construction of its most precarious section. If it is ever completed, the bulk […]

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ABOUT
WILDCATS AND BLACK SHEEP
Wildcats & Black Sheep is a personal interest blog dedicated to the identification and evaluation of maverick investment opportunities arising in frontier - and, what some may consider to be, “rogue” or “black sheep” - markets around the world.

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.