China, Afghanistan, and Pakistan: A Strategic Trade & Energy Corridor
June 3rd, 2008
Via The Asia Times, a very interesting analysis of China’s strategic interest in capitalizing on the convenience that Afghanistan and Pakistan offer for the exploitation of energy resources of Central Asia and the Middle East, and its resulting prioritization of the stability of Afghanistan. As the article notes: “… Afghanistan’s geographic location has made it […]
Read more »Gazprom Explores Southeast Asia
May 23rd, 2008
Reuters recently reported that Gazprom signed a deal with Vietnam’s state-owned energy company, Petrovietnam, to explore four new offshore fields. Gazprom says that their joint venture company VietGazprom, which has been exploring a Vietnamese offshore deposit since 2000, will operate the new fields. As Robert Amsterdam points out, this is just the latest example in […]
Read more »A New Look at Gazprom
May 10th, 2008
Via The New York Times, an in-depth look at Gazprom. As the article notes: “…It’s hard to overemphasize Gazprom’s role in the Russian economy. It’s a sprawling company that raked in $91 billion last year; it employs 432,000 people, pays taxes equal to 20 percent of the Russian budget and has subsidiaries in industries as […]
Read more »Iran as a Counter Balance to Gazprom’s Energy Power
May 7th, 2008
Robert Amsterdam (one of our favorite blogger analysts) recently offered interesting insight into the geopolitical importance of Iran in terms of EU energy security vis-à -vis Gazprom’s dominant position, and why Iran can be considered as a Gazprom monopoly “killer”. As the article notes, this may have impacted Russia’s actions during the major powers’ recent meeting […]
Read more »Gazprom, Libya, and Possibility of a Gas OPEC
May 7th, 2008
Via Robert Amsterdam, a very insightful look into recent activities by Gazprom, Libya, and possibility of a Gas OPEC. While some analysts have been skeptical about a possible gas cartel given the regional markets aspect of natural gas (which means that prices on the spot market could never be manipulated by production quotas as they […]
Read more »The New Silk (Rail)Road
April 4th, 2008
An interesting article in Windows on Eurasia, analyzing how two enormous railroad projects – one going north-south between Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan, and a second backed by the West going east-west between Europe and Central Asia – may play an even larger role than oil in defining the geopolitics of Eurasia. As the article notes: […]
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.