Eastern Europe’s Pipe(line) Dreams?
October 14th, 2007
Noticed via an Energy Daily article, that Azerbaijan, Poland, Lithuania, Georgia and Ukraine recently signed a deal to build a $700 million pipeline to pump Azerbaijani oil to Poland and the Baltic Sea, a pipeline that could provide Eastern (and ultimately Western) Europe with an alternative to Russian oil imports. “…The new pipeline, to be […]
Read more »Strategic Energy Transportation Corridor: Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan
October 13th, 2007
Interesting analysis by John C.K. Daly about some possible projects that would see Russia gain the upper hand in the race to exploit the Caspian’s vast energy reserves, lead to the end of cheap Eurasian natural gas, and dramatically undermine the impact of American sanctions on Iran. “…Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev provided more details about […]
Read more »The Race for Turkmenistan’s Reserves
September 16th, 2007
While Kazakhstan gets most of the press, perhaps the most interesting country in Central Asia – from a strategic hydrocarbon reserve perspective – is Turkmenistan. As this article notes, Turkmenistan’s vast natural gas stores are spurring a scramble between Russia, China, the U.S. and Europe for access to its reserves. “…Executives from Chevron Corp., Royal […]
Read more »Gazprom, Russia’s International Energy Leverage, and a Predetermined Gas War
September 14th, 2007
An excellent overview of Gazprom via The Independent, focusing primarily on Russia’s use of Gazprom as a means of projecting political power throughout the region. While the piece, by Anne Penketh, concludes that Gazprom – due to internal inefficiency and corruption – may ultimately end up being a paper tiger, she does point out that […]
Read more »Gazprom’s Vertical Ambitions … At Home and Abroad?
September 13th, 2007
The International Herald Tribune speculated about Gazprom’s vertical ambitions in a short note today. According to the report, “….Gazprom, which is controlled by the Russian government, wants to buy a major stake in Mosenergo, Moscow’s main energy supplier. In the short term, this might not affect consumers too much. They may even benefit, if Gazprom […]
Read more »Iranian Oil Swaps
September 3rd, 2007
An interesting analysis of Iran’s efforts to seek out oil swaps via John C.K. Daly and Energy Daily. As Daly points out, five nations share the Caspian’s coastline — Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran — and, when the Kashagan field comes online, there will be an enormous disparity between production and transit capabilities that […]
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.