Kosmos Energy plans to raise up to $500 million in an initial public offering, the West Africa-focused oil company told US regulators in a filing today. News wires 14 January 2011 17:32 GMT Kosmos, backed by private equity companies Blackstone Group and Warburg Pincus, plans to use proceeds from the offering to help fund its capital spending.

Its capital spending budget for the year is $400 million, it said.

Kosmos owns a 23.49% stake in Ghana's Jubilee offshore oilfield, which is operated by Britain's Tullow Oil and holds around 1.6 billion barrels of light crude, Reuters reported.

The company expects gross oil production from Jubilee to reach 120,000 barrels of oil per day by mid-year.

The Hamilton, Bermuda-based company told the US Securities and Exchange Commission in a preliminary prospectus that Credit Suisse, Citigroup and Barclays Capital were underwriting the IPO.

The filing did not reveal how many shares the company planned to sell or their offer price.