Ghana shamed at oil Conference

….Over Kosmos-ExxonMobil deal

Ghana’s Minister of Energy Joe Oteng-Adjei was stressed explaining and denying the force takeover of Kosmos Energy LLC’s by Government of Ghana, after Kosmos revealed to sell its interest to ExxonMobil in a deal valued at $4 billion.

At an Oil & Gas conference in Spain last week, the Minister in a bid to convince investors said Ghana National Petroleum Corp. (GNPC) is interested in purchasing Kosmos’ stake in Jubilee field and has the government’s full backing.

He however, tried to calm fears of oil and gas producers at the conference, telling them investors are safe in Ghana and that Ghana has no interest in taking away assets of Kosmos or any other investor. He said, “We allow every investor to get a fair value of return on their assets and investments that they put into the country. We want to work with them to ensure that whoever they bring into the country is mutually acceptable. But they have no right to impose on us anybody, any entity that does not share our development policies.”

Oteng-Adjei told the conference, “What we are saying is that this is an opportunity for us as a country to benefit. What we are saying is that Kosmos as an investor has a fair value to the assets they have invested in, but Kosmos cannot decide on who enters into the country to participate and join with us in the development of our country.”

According to him, Ghana has its own development policies and priorities and would not allow any investor to take advantage of the people of Ghana.

The Minister said Ghana does not have production-sharing contracts, and the carried participation by its state oil company is 10%. He said the only real return to the government was in taxes and royalties. This is one reason Ghana wants GNPC to obtain Kosmos’ stake, he said.

Tullow Oil PLC operates Jubilee field, which was discovered in 2007 in deep water off Ghana. It estimates Jubilee is a continuous stratigraphic trap with combined hydrocarbon columns in excess of 600 m, with 600 million-1.8 billion bbl of recoverable hydrocarbons.

Tullow holds a 34.7% stake in Jubilee, while Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Kosmos each hold 23.49%. Sabre Oil & Gas Ltd. holds 2.81, and EO Group has 1.75%.

Credit:Oil & Gas Journal