Petronas’ Dream Contracts in Uzbekistan: Results of Long-term Planning & Engagement
February 11th, 2008
As adroitly noted in Energy Daily, Malaysia’s Petronas (one of the New “Seven Sisters” which more than ten years ago was already working in Turkmenistan, another hydrocarbon rich nation that Western companies only recently began exploring) seems set to repeat its success in the one Central Asian country with immense potential that has been largely […]
Read more »Calling Dear Leader: Orascom’s North Korean Mobile Licence
February 3rd, 2008
As reported in Arabian Business, Orascom Telecom – the fourth-biggest Arab mobile phone operator by market value – announced that its subsidiary, CHEO Technology (in which the North Korean government also owns 25%), won the first mobile phone licence in North Korea. Orascom stated that it plans to invest $400 million on infrastructure and licence […]
Read more »Argentina and Bolivia’s Northeast Argentine Pipeline; A Feeble Attempt to Balance Brazil’s Growing Might
January 28th, 2008
Stratfor (subscription required) recently reported that Argentine and Bolivian leaders kicked off the $1.8 billion Northeast Argentine Pipeline (GNEA) project in Buenos Aires on Jan. 25. While this has important ramifications for the South American hydrocarbon picture, Stratfor insightfully notes that this is just another harbinger that the geopolitical structure of South America is changing: […]
Read more »A Scramble to Exploit Africa’s Significant Gas Reserves
January 28th, 2008
As reported in a recent Financial Times article, with Europe concerned over Russia’s political motives in exploiting its energy wealth and big international companies shut out or deterred from investing in the Middle East, many eyes have turned to Africa in the hope of securing future supplies of gas. However, as companies scramble to gain […]
Read more »Scramble for Africa…The “Final Frontier” of Conventional Sources of Oil
January 25th, 2008
As reported by Reuters, high oil prices and the onslaught of resource nationalism from Russia to South America have sent Western majors delving ever deeper into the waters of the Gulf of Guinea, triggering a new scramble for Africa. As the article notes: “…Unlike more established oil-producing regions, the Gulf of Guinea offers easy access […]
Read more »The European Pipeline War: Serbia, Bulgaria, Russia, and the World
January 24th, 2008
As noted by Steve LeVine at his Oil & Glory blog, Vladimir Putin recently racked up another in a string of unbroken victories in the European Pipeline War as Gazprom purchased a majority stake in the state oil company, NIS, and joined Russia’s South Stream Pipeline consortium. Last week, Bulgaria signed onto South Stream as […]
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.