Geopolitics of the Lapis Lazuli Corridor
December 24th, 2017
Via The Diplomat, a look at how the Lapis Lazuli project will advance the geopolitical aspirations of the member countries — and the US: The New Silk Road initiative of the United States came to life in June 2011, when then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hinted at regional connectivity through rail lines, highways, and energy infrastructure […]
Read more »China Funded Lapis-Lazuli Transport Corridor Unites Caucasus & Central Asia
December 6th, 2017
Via Silk Road Briefing, an article on the Lapis-Lazuli Transport Corridor: China’s reach into Central Asia and the Caucasus has taken a major step forward with a new initiative poetically known as “The Lapis-Lazuli Transit, Trade & Transport Route” (or the “Lapis Lazuli Corridor”). This aims to enhance regional economic cooperation and connectivity between Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, […]
Read more »China: Striving To Boost Energy Imports From Turkmenistan
November 25th, 2017
Via Eurasianet.org, a report on China’s efforts to boost energy imports from Turkmenistan: China is expected to be a major presence at the 28th meeting of the Energy Charter Conference, scheduled to be held in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat on November 28-29. Chinese officials are looking to catalyze efforts to secure larger volumes of energy […]
Read more »Turkmenistan: Iran, Saudis Dangle Exits From Energy Cul-de-Sac
November 15th, 2017
Via Times of Central Asia, a report on Ashgabat’s efforts to diversify its gas exports and find investors in its hydrocarbon projects: Turkmenistan possesses huge natural-gas reserves but for now has only one buyer of its gas — China. As the Turkmen economy is experiencing a downturn caused by low gas prices in the world market, […]
Read more »TAPI Pipeline
October 20th, 2017
Via Mantraya, commentary on the potential of the TAPI pipeline: The narrow security dominated approach has not yielded results in the last sixteen years of the ‘war on terrorism’ in Afghanistan. And yet there is much emphasis on kinetic operations and troop surge in the new strategy in Afghanistan and South Asia announced by Donald […]
Read more »Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan: Facing Reality of Central Asia’s Economic Development
August 13th, 2017
Via the Times of Central Asia, an article on Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan’s economic performance over the last couple of years: Increasing discrepancies between a growing avalanche of economic forecasts by more and more institutional lenders and sideliners for the wider Central Asian region have revived the debate on criteria used in macroeconomic assessments. Sharing a […]
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.