China’s Latin American Investments Downshift To Smaller, More Strategic Projects
March 6th, 2024
Via China Strategy, a look at China’s Latin American investment strategy: Margaret Myers, one of the study’s main researchers and director of its Asia and Latin America programme, said that the years of large, high-risk projects have led to a reorganisation of priorities in Beijing. She believes that the Chinese economic slowdown has led several […]
Read more »How Drug Traffickers Made the Galápagos Islands Their Gas Station
January 29th, 2024
Courtesy of The Washington Post, a riveting story on the interactions between economics, illegal activity, the environment, and fossil fuel consumption in Ecuador and a reminder that conservation is inextricable from peace and security, prosperity, and human well being: Charles Darwin described it as the most desolate of the Galápagos Islands, an almost extraterrestrial outpost […]
Read more »China’s Global Mega-Projects Are Falling Apart
January 29th, 2023
Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal, a look at the growing number of China BRI infrastructure projects plagued with construction flaws, adding more costs to a program already criticized for leading countries deeper into debt: Built near a spewing volcano, it was the biggest infrastructure project ever in this country, a concrete colossus bankrolled by […]
Read more »China’s Expanding Involvement in the Latin American Energy Sector
July 25th, 2013
Courtesy of STRATFOR (subscription required), analysis of China’s involvement in Latin America’s energy industry: Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas announced July 6 that one of China’s state-owned oil companies, China National Petroleum Corp., will take a 30 percent stake in Ecuador’s $12.5 billion Refinery of the Pacific, which will have a refining capacity of 300,000 barrels per day. […]
Read more »Oil Nationalism in Latin America
September 23rd, 2009
Courtesy of Foreign Policy In Focus, an interesting report on oil nationalism in Latin America. As the article notes: “…Latin America is endowed with 132 billion barrels of “proven” oil. Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, and Ecuador have significant reserves and strong state involvement in the exploration and production of oil through their nationalized companies Petróleos de […]
Read more »Iran & Venezuela: Building an Energy Axis in South America
September 15th, 2008
Courtesy of Reuters, news that Iran, Ecuador, and Venezuela have agreed to build a refinery and a petrochemical unit in Ecuador. As the article reports: “An agreement was signed between Iran and Ecuador on cooperation in the oil industry and showed the will of the two countries’ presidents to increase cooperation in economy and politics,” […]
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.