Oiling the Silk Road…
November 8th, 2007
Kazakh national energy company KazMunaiGas announced that it – along with China National Petroleum Corporation – have agreed to build a natural gas pipeline linking Beijing to natural gas reserves in the Caspian Sea. The companies will use a 50-50 operator to construct and maintain the pipeline, which will be built in two phases in […]
Read more »Iran: Refining its Decision to Import Oil Products
November 7th, 2007
As noted in a recent Stratfor report (subscription required), Iran’s national oil company announced plans to build eight new oil refineries with the ultimate goal of becoming a net exporter of refined oil products. “….The world’s fourth-largest exporter of crude oil, Iran ironically depends on the world market for 40 percent of its gasoline due […]
Read more »Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. – A Study in Petrocracy
November 6th, 2007
I strongly recommend a terrific article by Tina Rosenberg in the New York Times magazine which describes the unexploited promise – and many problems – associated with Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (Pdvsa) under the current Venezuelan political regime in particular and nationalized oil in general. As the article notes: “…77 percent of the world’s oil […]
Read more »The New Seven Sisters: Sending Big Oil the Way of the Dinosaurs?
November 2nd, 2007
An interesting post from Oil and Glory noting an evolutionary shift in the oil business that will see the growing marginalization – and probable absolute shrinkage – of Big Oil over the next decade and beyond, in favor of the New Seven Sisters. The main reason, according to the article, is that the oil majors: […]
Read more »North Korea: Following Vietnam’s Model?
November 2nd, 2007
Stratfor offered an interesting look at North Korea’s economic strategies recently (subscription required), noting that Kim Jong Il himself has suggested that North Korea might use Vietnam as a benchmark model for reviving its decrepit economy. “…North Korea is aligned with the goals of the Vietnamese growth model, but it plans to embark on its […]
Read more »China: Banking on Africa
October 31st, 2007
A few interesting articles, courtesy of Bloomberg and The Financial Times, detailing two recent Chinese investments into the African banking sector, namely Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.’s move to buy 20 percent of Standard Bank Group Ltd. (Africa’s largest bank) and China Development Bank’s partnership with United Bank for Africa, one of Nigeria’s […]
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.