Dinosaurs at the Tar Pit: Big Oil as Road Kill on The Hydrocarbon Highway?
February 5th, 2008
From The Times (UK), more news on the decline of Big Oil in favour of government-controlled national oil companies in big producer countries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran and Venezuela. The share of the world’s oil reserves controlled by the big Western oil companies, such as BP, Shell and ExxonMobil, has fallen to less […]
Read more »“Gas OPEC” to Be Discussed again in June
January 28th, 2008
As reported by Iran’s Shana news, gas-producing countries are planning to again discuss the idea of forming a “gas OPEC” along the lines of the existing oil organization in June in Moscow. According to the article, members of the existing Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) had appointed an expert to look at the idea of […]
Read more »Iran: Go East Young Man
January 20th, 2008
As noted several weeks ago, Iran’s Pars Oil & Gas struck a $16 billion deal with SKS Ventures, a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Al-Bukhari Foundation, to develop the Golshan and Ferdowsi gas fields in southern Iran. This agreement was in line with the national policy to attract investments in oil and gas sector from non-Western, especially […]
Read more »Turkmenistan’s Pipeline Politics: Turkey, Iran, and Others Shiver Together
January 15th, 2008
There have been stories this past week or so about the severe winter and gas shortages in Iran, and their resulting cut in supplies to Turkey. The Iranian domestic shortage was supposed to be made up from Turkmenistan. Unfortunately the shortfall from Iran to Turkey was supposed to be made up by increased supplies from […]
Read more »Big Goals for Iran’s First Private Oil Producer
January 14th, 2008
Via Shana, news that Arvandan Oil and Gas Co. was busy setting up the first private oil producing company in Iran. What struck me most about the report was the rather audacious production goals this new venture is reported to have set, namely to “…produce seven percent of the world’s oil, to be the world’s […]
Read more »Off The Map In Africa – Balancing Political Risk With Geological Risk
January 11th, 2008
Going to take a break from discussions of supermajors and the New Seven Sisters for one post to highlight an interesting article from Canada’s Globe and Mail introducing a small Toronto Stock Exchange-listed company, Addax Petroleum — Canada’s fifth-largest offshore oil producer (it has no domestic Canadian production), the biggest independent producer in Nigeria and […]
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.