East Timor: The World’s Youngest Failed State
December 31st, 2021
Via Foreign Affairs, an article on East Timor: By almost any measure, Southeast Asia is thriving. The region has a population of over 600 million, brings in more foreign investment than China, and boasts a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion, larger than India’s $1.9 trillion economy. It is no wonder, then, that Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, […]
Read more »Timor-Leste’s Economic Make-or-Break Moment
November 24th, 2021
Via The Diplomat, an article on Timor Leste’s urgent efforts to diversify its economy: Since the restoration of its independence in 2002, Timor-Leste has made tremendous progress in social capital (education and health), infrastructure (electricity and telecommunication), and in institutional frameworks such as security, defense and foreign affairs. To cite some figures, in the health […]
Read more »Timor-Leste Pipe Dreams: After Compulsory Conciliation, What Comes Next?
January 28th, 2021
Via Future Directions International, an article on how, aAlthough the Australia and Timor-Leste Maritime Boundary Agreement has been ratified, the development of the Greater Sunrise hydrocarbon field remains just a “pipe dream”: Key Points The Greater Sunrise hydrocarbon field straddles an international maritime boundary between Australia and Timor-Leste, which was delimited via the process of […]
Read more »East Timor : From Democratic Success to Failed Petro-State
October 18th, 2020
Via Asia Nikkei, commentary on how East Timor went from democratic success to failed petro-state: “Like Bali before the tourism boom.” That is how I described East Timor — a young country brimming with hope — when I first arrived there to work as a correspondent in 2009. The factional violence of 2006-2008 had finally ended and […]
Read more »COVID-19 Wipes Out East Timor’s Dreams of Oil and Gas Riches
October 18th, 2020
Via Nikkei Asia, a report on Timor Leste: COVID-19 and the global collapse in oil and gas prices appear to have put the final nail into the coffin of East Timor’s long-held dream to create a domestic petroleum industry that would end its dependence on foreign aid and secure its viability as a sovereign state. […]
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.