Afghanistan Joins The Railroad Era …100 Years Late
March 12th, 2012
Via The Globe and Mail, a report on Afghanistan’s railway dreams: More than a century ago, fearing that his country might be swallowed up in the Great Game rivalry between the British empire to the east and the Russian army to the north, an Afghan king made a radical decision: He banned railroads. That edict […]
Read more »Can The Afghan Economy Be Saved?
February 3rd, 2012
Courtesy of Foreign Policy, a look at Afghanistan’s economy and economic future. As the article notes: Whipsawed by a long-drawn U.S.-led military operation and a decade of erratic international economic assistance, Afghanistan is in shambles. With economic development always considered secondary to security concerns, little has been done in the past decade to establish a […]
Read more »TAPI Pipeline: Pakistan Proposes Uniform Transit Fee
February 3rd, 2012
Via The Express Tribune, an article on Pakistan’s recent proposal of a uniform transit fee for the import of gas under the $7.6 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project: “…Pakistan has proposed Afghanistan a uniform transit fee for the import of gas under the $7.6 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, government officials say. In […]
Read more »China Wins Afghan Oil Contract
January 5th, 2012
Via Foreign Policy, a report that China has won an Afghan oil contract: Any suspicions that the US went into Afghanistan to secure access to resources went out the window last week. On Wednesday, Tom A. Peter over at the Christian Science Monitor reported, “China’s National Petroleum Corporation became the first foreign company to tap […]
Read more »Afghan Rail Plan To Boost Mineral Exports
December 20th, 2011
Courtesy of The Financial Times, a report on the Asian Development Bank’s interest in raising $1bn to expand a newly-completed stretch of railway in Afghanistan into a countrywide network to export iron ore and copper to global markets. As the article notes: “…Afghanistan is due to open the 75-km link between the northern city of […]
Read more »Indian Consortium Wins $10bn Afghanistan Mines Deal
November 29th, 2011
Via the BBC, a report that a consortium of Indian companies has won the right to develop some of Afghanistan’s large iron ore deposits. As the article notes: “Seven Indian companies, led by the state-owned Steel Authority of India, won a $10.3bn (£6.6bn) deal to mine three sites in central Afghanistan. A fourth site was […]
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.