A Thirsty Dragon Strikes in Turkmenistan
January 14th, 2008
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 […]
Read more »Challenges & Opportunities Facing Emerging Markets in the Middle East & North Africa
January 10th, 2008
In a recent article published by Knowledge@Wharton, Howard Pack (a professor of business and public policy at Wharton) and Marcus Noland (a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics) examined how Arab countries are coping with globalization & exploiting the recent influx of hydrocarbon-based money into their economies. We found the following notes […]
Read more »Frontier Markets: Turning Tables on Traditional Concepts & Making Up for Lost Time
January 8th, 2008
As noted in this report from Seeking Alpha, frontier markets are apt to continue to become more and more common considerations for investors. In fact, even though this blog is partially oriented around such maverick investing environments, one can’t help but wonder – given the number of articles recently focused on frontier markets – if […]
Read more »Dubai: Iran’s Hong Kong
December 30th, 2007
An interesting article in Terra Daily recently, comparing Dubai’s current & cultural associations with Iran to that which Hong Kong historically played for China (before the mainland opened up).  As the article notes, Dubai “…is to Iran’s theocracy what British-ruled Hong Kong was to China’s Communist overlords — a gigantic entrepot.” Given the similarity, […]
Read more »Middle Eastern Markets
December 11th, 2007
Via Bloomberg, an interesting review of the equity markets in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman where – as oil revenues spur construction and increase demand – profit growth is projected to exceed other emerging markets around the word. As the article notes: “… The MSCI GCC Countries Index of […]
Read more »The Largest Thanksgiving Day Sale Ever: Oil Producers Buy The World
November 28th, 2007
From the NY Times, more evidence that oil-producing countries have embarked upon a global shopping spree. While the focus is the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority’s bold outlay of $7.5 billion to become one of the largest shareholders in Citigroup, the article does a nice job of detailing many other petro-dollar based purchases that have taken […]
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.