There’s no question about it – Argentina “lost” when they announced the renationalization of oil company YRG, seizing the 51% stake from the Spanish energy giant Repsol.  In the weeks since, they have been taking a beating in the global media.  If it was President Kirchener’s plan to take the oil company all along, the [...]

After a number of accidents, attacks by militants, and political scandals, is Shell’s honeymoon with Nigeria coming to an end? Some recent events and transactions indicate a shift in the Dutch company’s strategy in the country, opening a window of opportunity for new operators.

Blackrock, the world’s largest money manager, today warned that “resource nationalism” was a growing trend, on the rise globally. Their investment chief for natural resources, Evy Hambro, particularly singled out the regimes of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela as extreme examples of government intervention, ultimately hinderances to foreign investment. “We’re seeing a [...]

Reuters has a very interesting interview with Evy Hambro, investment advisor at BlackRock Inc., who says that issues of resource nationalism, state intervention, and expropriation are continuing to create increasing risk to the value of some of the world’s leading mining companies, passing costs all the way down to the consumer. Resource nationalism in producer [...]

Some interesting analysis from Seeking Alpha takes a look at how the rising risks of resource nationalism are having an impact on many companies’ share values. A developing nation’s natural resources are both a source of pride and an important economic asset. Resource nationalism is the term used to describe the policy of governments to [...]

It’s become a familiar exercise in many Sub-Saharan resource states – a popular leader comes to power by coup, revolution, and sometimes, by vote, promises sweeping social change and the eradication of poverty by tapping a greater share of the resource wealth, revokes and reissues a variety of licenses and rights, hangs onto power for [...]

Foreign policy used to be a craft practised by diplomats and statesmen. No longer.

What do a steel company, urban development projects and golf courses all have in common? They are three of the latest targets of Hugo Chávez’s nationalization drive – and part of his plan for renewed popularity. The background is a severe shortage of decent housing: over 2m homes are needed, by some counts, in a [...]

A global recession has changed, among other international dynamics, a greater willingness for the Ukraine to cooperate with a former mother-nation that recently sought to fine them $2 billion dollars in what can be described as a reprimanding for favoring EU cooperation, and a mere few years ago shut off gas to nearby Belarus, threatening [...]

Venezuela is often referred to as the capital of South America, and in some respects, its easy to see why. In terms of notable leaders on the continent, one doesn’t immediately think of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of a Brazil that comprises nearly half of the land mass, but indeed, of Venezuelan President Hugo [...]