Crude Vision: An American Oil Empire Is A Flawed Idea
January 17th, 2026
Via The Economist, a look at Donald Trump’s expansive ambitions and limited plans: JUST HOURS after America captured Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator, on January 3rd, President Donald Trump clarified his motivation. “The oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time,” he said. America would “spend billions of dollars, […]
Read more »Who Will Cash In On Venezuelan Oil?
January 13th, 2026
Via The Economist, a look at who will cash in on Venezuelan oil? “Obviously at the front of the pack.” That is how Scott Bessent, America’s treasury secretary, describes Chevron’s position among the growing band of investors hoping to profit from Venezuela’s oil. A desire to reopen the industry to his country’s oilmen played no small […]
Read more »Can Trump Make Venezuela an Oil Giant Again?
January 12th, 2026
Via the Wall Street Journal, commentary on President Trump’s desire to have U.S. oil companies return to Venezuela in a big way, but the petrostate’s turbulent history suggests formidable challenges ahead: “No one was paying any attention to Venezuelan oil two weeks ago,” a longtime oilman said to me the other day, “but now everyone […]
Read more »Exxon CEO Calls Venezuela ‘Uninvestable’ Without ‘Significant Changes’
January 10th, 2026
Courtesy of the Washington Post, a report on Venezuela and lack of oil investor interest: As President Donald Trump pushed U.S. oil companies to commit to invest $100 billion in Venezuela at a White House meeting on Friday, the CEO of ExxonMobil warned the company is far from enlisting. CEO Darren Woods said that Venezuela […]
Read more »Is Venezuela a Critical Minerals Target?
January 6th, 2026
Via the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a look at Venezuela’s critical minerals inventory: On December 25, 1956, the New York Times declared, “Venezuela Finds Big Ore Deposits; Geologists Assert Reserves of Minerals May Approach Nation’s Oil in Importance.” Nearly seven decades later, that promise has largely gone unrealized. Far from emerging as a major global […]
Read more »Crude Vision: Donald Trump’s Great Venezuelan Oil Gamble
January 5th, 2026
Via The Economist, an article on the challenges facing Venezuela’s oil sector: JUST HOURS after America captured Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator, in a nighttime raid on January 3rd, President Donald Trump clarified his motivation. “The oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time,” he said. “We are […]
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.