Astana’s Brinksmanship: MangistauMunayGaz’s Lessons of Petrocracy
December 11th, 2007
As noted in Energy Daily, Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov recently disclosed that he had sanctioned KazMunayGaz’s planned purchase of a major stake of MangistauMunayGaz, a move that would give the state-owned oil company shareholder veto power over company decisions, further diluting the power of Western investors. What this consolidation will mean both for the […]
Read more »Turkmenistan’s High Stakes Poker Game Upon Which Many Promises Have Been Made
December 6th, 2007
From Eurasianet.org, a terrific look at Turkmenistan’s delicate balance of making promises to various regional hydrocarbon players, all without the benefit of a published, independent audit of the nation’s petroleum reserves. As the article notes: “…Turkmenistan is believed to be one of the top five nations in the world, in terms of natural gas reserves. […]
Read more »China’s Growing Influence in Kazakhstan
December 6th, 2007
As noted in the Eurasia Daily Monitor, Kazakhstan – despite its efforts to symbolically broaden its foreign policy with recent Presidential visits to places such as Syria, UAE, and the Balkans – and investments such as KazMunayGaz’s recent acquisition of a 75% stake in Romania’s Rompetrol Group, the Balkan pipeline route and East European markets […]
Read more »Oiling the Silk Road…
November 8th, 2007
Kazakh national energy company KazMunaiGas announced that it – along with China National Petroleum Corporation – have agreed to build a natural gas pipeline linking Beijing to natural gas reserves in the Caspian Sea. The companies will use a 50-50 operator to construct and maintain the pipeline, which will be built in two phases in […]
Read more »Petro-politics and the Kashagan Showdown…
September 2nd, 2007
Strongly recommend this comprehensive background post on the current crisis involving the Kazakh government and the international consortium developing the country’s Kashagan field. Of particular interest, was the impact analysis that restructuring the Kashagan project may have upon Kazakhstans’s “petro-promises”: “….Kazakhstan has engaged to supply multiple customers, most of them powerful, and some of them […]
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.