Angola: Oil Dependency Leaves Thin Margin For China Debt Service
September 4th, 2024
Via The Africa Report, an article on Angola’s dependency on oil exports: Angola needs to diversify its economy away from oil – but oil receipts are the only way to pay for it. Rising Angolan state arrears on payments to Chinese contractors highlight the risks of sovereign debt distress amid an uncertain outlook for global oil prices, […]
Read more »U.S. Taps Tanzania For Infrastructure Plan In Battle With China For Minerals
August 30th, 2024
Via The East African, an article on U.S. interest in Tanzania’s mineral sector: The US is roping Tanzania into the mooted Lobito Corridor project to tap the Kabanga nickel deposit, but with a wider focus on rivalry with China in areas where development will take place. The details emerged this week as Washington spoke of […]
Read more »Refining the Lobito Corridor: The Future of Cobalt in Sub-Saharan Africa
August 29th, 2024
Via Harvard International Review, a report on the Lobito Corridor and the future of cobalt production in sub-Saharan Africa: By 2040, clean-energy technologies will need 40 times more lithium, 25 times more graphite, and 20 times more nickel and cobalt than in 2020. These metals are essential to the batteries in smartphones and electric vehicles (EV) and […]
Read more »Africa’s Petrostates: Missing Out On Oil Boom
August 28th, 2024
Courtesy of The Financial Times, commentary on those African petrostates are missing out on the oil boom — and why it matters because these countries need to finance their energy transitions: Angola’s dramatic exit from the oil cartel Opec+ late last year was interpreted as a historic pivot to the west. The less understood but […]
Read more »Scramble for Critical Minerals Spurs an African Rail Revival
August 27th, 2024
Courtesy of Bloomberg, another look at the critical mineral-enabled interest in African rail lines: Central African copperbelt forms heart of the logistics plans Years of neglect caused a $10 billion maintenance backlog Southern Africa’s railways are suddenly getting global attention and attracting billions of dollars in investment, with a race to secure copper supplies needed […]
Read more »Africa’s Copperbelt and the Atlantic
August 26th, 2024
Via Geopolitical Futures, a quick summary of the Lobito Corridor, whose success depends on financing: The Lobito Corridor is a planned 1,850-km (1,150-mile) railway connecting the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Atlantic Ocean via Angola’s Port of Lobito, with an additional 500 km extension linking Zambia to the main route. Announced in September 2023, […]
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.