Venezuela: 21st century socialism & Paradise Lost

Heads turned on global oil markets when news hit the press earlier this year that Venezuela had snook past Saudi to top the table of global oil reserves, with a staggering 296.5 billion of proven reserves. And as the soap opera over Hugo Chavez’ illness continues and speculation over the future of these resources under more »

FARC’s new Big Oil strategy in Colombia

Two events have propelled Colombia into the pages of international newspapers in recent weeks. The second was last month’s hosting of the Summit of the America’s, held in the sun-drenched port of Cartagena – despite walk-outs and spats over the Falklands, the event was widely touted as celebrating Colombia’s miraculous “comeback” from a mal-functioning narco-state more »

Colombia, KRG, Peru: so where are those “published” Oil Contracts?

There is an ever increasing level of interest in the debate around contract transparency in the global extractives industries, and a growing minority of jurisdictions which have agreed to publish contracts openly. However winning the argument is only the first chapter in the story as I discovered recently looking at Colombia, Peru and Iraqi Kudistan. more »