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Business News of Wednesday, 18 August 2010

Source: Reuters

Kosmos cancels Exxon Mobil's Ghana Oil pact?

* Kosmos Energy says agreement has been terminated
* Ghana's state oil co wants to buy stake
* Kosmos says production targets for field on track

Oil exploration and production company Kosmos Energy said its agreement with ExxonMobil to sell its Ghana business has been terminated, frustrating Exxon's hopes of entering Ghana's offshore oil sector for now.

Kosmos' deal to sell its stake in the Jubilee oilfield has faced objections from many quarters recently, including from Ghana National Petroleum Corp, the state oil company that wanted to buy the stake itself.

Kosmos, backed by private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Blackstone Group LP, agreed last year to sell its interests in the field to ExxonMobil for $4 billion, sources close to the deal had said.

Oil production from the Jubilee Field phase one development is on schedule to begin in the late fourth quarter and is expected to rise to 120,000 barrels of oil per day during the first half of 2011, Kosmos said in a statement.

Kosmos owns the field with UK-based oil explorer Tullow Oil (TLW.L) and Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum (APC.N). It put its interest in the field on the market last year. (Reporting by Anurag Kotoky in Bangalore; Editing by Hans Peters)