Kosmos sells Jubilee Field interest to Exxon-Mobil

Kosmos, the American oil company has done the unthinkable. It has ignored the protests of the Government of Ghana and shoved the interest of the people of Ghana aside in a reckless deal with Exxon-Mobil.

Information available to The Insight newspaper indicates that KOSMOS has already signed a Sales, Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Exxon-Mobil.

Under this agreement, Exxon-Mobil will obtain 100 per cent of KOSMOS interests in the Jubilee Oil Field. Interestingly after concluding the deal with Exxon-Mobil, KOSMOS has now turned around to request the Government of Ghana to give its blessings.

In a hand delivered letter to President Mills on June 29, 2010, KOSMOS impudently requested the Government of Ghana to give its blessings to a deal it was not party to.

The letter signed by Brian F Maxted, was copied to Dr. Joe Oteng-Adjei, Minister of Energy and Mr. Ato Ahwoi, Chairman of the Ghana Petroleum Corporation.

So far government has not responded to this very insulting letter but industry sources told The Insight they will be surprised if the Government of Ghana gave its consent.

There is widespread suspicion that the original deal under which KOSMOS eventually became one of the operators of the Jubilee Field was not sufficiently transparent.

Currently, the Government of Ghana through the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has only 10 per cent shares in the operation of the Jubilee field and it was expected that this could be increased with proper negotiations with KOSMOS.

GNPC sources say that KOSMOS has violated some clauses of the agreement under which the company data was made available to them.