Turkmenistan’s High Stakes Poker Game Upon Which Many Promises Have Been Made
December 6th, 2007
From Eurasianet.org, a terrific look at Turkmenistan’s delicate balance of making promises to various regional hydrocarbon players, all without the benefit of a published, independent audit of the nation’s petroleum reserves. As the article notes: “…Turkmenistan is believed to be one of the top five nations in the world, in terms of natural gas reserves. […]
Read more »China’s Growing Influence in Kazakhstan
December 6th, 2007
As noted in the Eurasia Daily Monitor, Kazakhstan – despite its efforts to symbolically broaden its foreign policy with recent Presidential visits to places such as Syria, UAE, and the Balkans – and investments such as KazMunayGaz’s recent acquisition of a 75% stake in Romania’s Rompetrol Group, the Balkan pipeline route and East European markets […]
Read more »Turkmenistan: Balancing China, Russia, and Europe
November 29th, 2007
As cogently analyzed by Stratfor (subscription required), Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimukhammedov’s recent announcement that a pipeline supplying Russia with natural gas from Turkmenistan would be upgraded may just be another effort by the Turkmen leader to string Russia along — for as long as he can — until a better option, most likely China, comes […]
Read more »Approaching Eurasia’s Tipping Point?
November 15th, 2007
As noted in a recent Stratfor report (subscription required), upcoming Azerbaijani and Turkmen talks about the legal status of the two countries’ maritime border in the Caspian Sea could well change the balance of power in Eurasia. As it writes: “…Russia has a number of tools at its disposal for affecting countries near it, but […]
Read more »Pipe Down: A Summary of Central Asia’s Pipeline Wars
October 31st, 2007
 As always, an interesting post by Steve Levine, discussing the U.S. failure to match Russia so far in the European pipeline war. Since I’ve discussed various pipeline (and a few pipe dream) initiatives of late, I found this article to be a useful summary: “….Europe relies on Russia for more than 30% of its oil […]
Read more »India’s Presence in the Central Asian Energy Market
October 27th, 2007
Via NewEurasia, a report that India ONGC Mittal Energy (a joint venture between oil and gas company ONGC Videsh and steel giant Mittal Investment) acquired a 30 percent stake in an exploration block of Turkmenistan’s reserves in the Caspian Sea. The Turkmen project will become the Indian joint venture’s fourth oil and gas holding, as […]
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.