Author Archive

Ecuador Invests in its Oil Industry, but Following the Chavez Model?

As detailed by Xinhua Financial News, Ecuador – South America’s fifth-largest oil producer with an average of 510,000 barrels of crude a day – will invest U.S. $2 billion in its oil industry this year in a bid to increase production by 11 percent.  Some $1.7 billion will be used to increase production at state […]

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Cuba’s Oil-Rich Waters

As reported by Energy Daily, Brazil has signed a deal that would give Brazil’s Petrobras access to Cuban potentially oil-rich waters, where it hopes to begin drilling in the next two years. As the article notes: “…While Petrobras and Cuba already have a longstanding relationship, [the] agreement marked the first time the Brazilian company would […]

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Emerg(ing / ed) Markets?

While past performance can never be considered as a strong indicator of future returns (in investment term), Time’s Curious Capitalist offered an interesting look back at the world’s ten best-performing stock indices (in dollar terms) since the beginning of the decade: Ukraine PFTS Index Russia RTS Index Peru Lima General Index Slovak Share Index Kuwait […]

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Turkmenistan’s Pipeline Politics: Turkey, Iran, and Others Shiver Together

There have been stories this past week or so about the severe winter and  gas shortages  in Iran, and their resulting cut in supplies to  Turkey.  The Iranian domestic shortage was supposed to be made up from  Turkmenistan.  Unfortunately the shortfall from Iran to Turkey was supposed to be made up by increased supplies  from […]

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A Thirsty Dragon Strikes in Turkmenistan

Via Energy Daily, reports that one relatively obscure Western oil company – Ireland’s Dragon Oil – managed to beat out mega-competitors such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP and Royal Dutch Shell to develop Turkmenistan’s nascent Caspian oilfields, the result of years of careful planning during a time when oil traded for below $20 a barrel, and […]

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Big Goals for Iran’s First Private Oil Producer

Via Shana, news that Arvandan Oil and Gas Co. was busy setting up the first private oil producing company in Iran.  What struck me most about the report was the rather audacious production goals this new venture is reported to have set, namely to “…produce seven percent of the world’s oil, to be the world’s […]

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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.