China’s Growing Influence in Latin America
January 8th, 2025
Via the Council on Foreign Relations, a look at China’s growing influence in Latin America: Summary China is South America’s top trading partner and a major source of both foreign direct investment and energy and infrastructure lending, including through its massive Belt and Road Initiative. Beijing has invested heavily in Latin America’s space sector and has strengthened its […]
Read more »The Caribbean Struggles To Break Its Dependence On Fossil Fuels
December 16th, 2024
Via The Economist, a look at Caribbean nations’s struggles to move to renewable energy: Venezuela’s government is prone to bouts of thuggery. In recent times, desperate for cash, it has resorted to gangsteresque oil debt-collection. “Pay up, you moron,” thundered Diosdado Cabello Cabello, Venezuela’s interior minister, in a fight over $350m in arrears with Luis Abinader, […]
Read more »Energy Offshoots: PDVSA
December 8th, 2024
Via Phenomenal World, an article on transformations in Petróleos de Venezuela and geopolitical realignments: Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) has been integral to Nicolás Maduro’s government and the greater Chavista project. Despite the state-owned oil company controlling the largest crude oil reserves in the world, its production capabilities have fallen sharply since 2014: the country went […]
Read more »How America Inadvertently Created an ‘Axis of Evasion’ Led by China
May 30th, 2024
Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, a look at how Western sanctions and export controls were meant to subdue foes of the U.S. but instead have led to a shadow economy: Western sanctions and export controls were meant to subdue America’s enemies, leveraging the power of the dollar to strong-arm governments into submission without the bloodshed of […]
Read more »Offshore Treasure: ExxonMobil, Venezuela, and the Battle for Guyana’s Oil
March 23rd, 2024
Via Phenomenal World, a report on ExxonMobil, Venezuela, and the battle for Guyana’s oil: Since the discovery of some of the world’s largest oil reserves in 2015, Guyana has entered a period of economic and geostrategic reconfiguration. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), Guyana holds the sixth-largest oil reserves in the Americas and the […]
Read more »Russia, Venezuela to Boost Cooperation in Energy, Including Nuclear
February 23rd, 2024
Via Energy Daily, a report on Russian and Venezuelan plans to boost cooperation in energy, including nuclear: Anti-American allies Russia and Venezuela vowed to boost cooperation in oil and gas production and the “peaceful use of nuclear energy” at a meeting of foreign ministers in Caracas Tuesday. Russia’s Sergei Lavrov arrived in Venezuela late Monday from […]
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.