"Kufuor's modus operandi exposed" - Here are the FACTS

It is unfortunate that in Ghana today those who follow their entrepreneural spirit and take some of the most unthinkable risks to bring all Ghanaians a chance at prosperity are the very ones who end up enduring inuendos and character assasinations by a government bent on taking Ghana backwards. Notice that the very people who spend the most times looking into other people's creative business enterprises have little or no such accomplishments to show for their tenure. Jealousy should never be any government's policy.

The new oil industry has been politized unduly of late with a pack of raw lies, fabrications and smokescreen that has made it imperative for every Ghanaian to know the truth and nothing but the truth. Peace in Ghana is supreme and factual information is paramount in attaining this PEACE. The following is a list of absolutely factual accounts about the oil industry, a farcry from the shameful campaign of pure lies that have been disseminated in the Ghanaian media of late. THERE IS NO DISPUTE: GOD ALMIGHTY GAVE GHANA THE OIL AND GAS, but it is through human beings that God used to finally discover oil in commercial quantities for the collective benefit of Ghanaians THE CAPITAL OF THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY IS IN HOUSTON TEXAS. USA. THERE ARE NO REAL SECRETS IN THIS INDUSTRY: HENCE ANY HANKY PANKY WILL EVENTUALLY COME OUT, PERIOD. That means putting out fictional accounts amounts to an exercise in futility because these days, thanks to the Internet, everything is verifiable. So as a reader, I challenge you to verify the following factual accounts. Then contrast them with the pack of fictional accounts that this NDC government seems bent on feeding Ghanaians:

It is the Ghanaian indigenes who found oil seeping out of the ground in certain parts of our motherland who informed our traditional chiefs according to custom. The chiefs then informed the colonial masters and the ‘SURVEY DEPARTMENT’ was born in 1898. Since 1898 to date exploration of oil and collection of data has been part of every government's policy.

Our Independence forbearers played an active part, with the first President especially using the Russians, to further explore the Volta Basin which had otherwise been unexplored. To date, it is the only land-based oil potential we have as a nation.

Subsequent Military governments and the second civilian governments also played a very important role until the first oil was discovered in 1970’s. This find was not enough to be characterized as "commercial quantities." The Ghana National Petroleum Company was subsequently born in 1985 to focus more on oil and gas. The new GNPC therefore depended on the structure and data of the previous Survey Department.

IT IS A PRACTICE IN THE OIL INDUSTRY FOR SMALLER AND MEDIUM COMPANIES TO DO THE GROUNDWORK for the Major oil companies to develop and produce the oil, especially in a country where major oil has not been established. The concept of Opportunity Cost makes it financially senseless for major oil companies to invest their resources in unproven areas such as Ghana. The same pattern played itself in Ghana and a lot of not-so-major companies came to Ghana to review data and some ones actually drilled for oil and found nothing in commercial quantities.

GNPC initially did a good job of attracting these small and medium companies to look for oil .GNPC also collected data and trained a lot of Ghanaians in this new industry. In the process GNPC blossomed into a huge company. GNPC under Tsatsu Tsikata subsequently, diversified into other areas of commercial activity such as Cocoa Farming, Poultry farming, ICT and satellite investment, Gold Mining, Hotel industry among others. A lot of hundreds of millions of tax payer’s money were used in these investments which were completely different from the original goal of the company. Our speculation here is that the frustration of failing to discover oil and the need to "do something" may have combined to form the basis for this diversion. The activities of GNPC [phase one] climaxed in 1998 to 2000, when previously successful companies with good reputation came to drill wells in Ghana. They are: Houston Texas based Nuevo Energy , UK based Dana Petroleum ,Australia’s Perth based Fusion Oil and Gas , Dallas Texas based Hunt Oil Company , Houston based Santa Fe Snyder . [Reference International NEWSWEEK magazine April 20th 2000 edition].

UNFORTUNATELY BY 2001 ALL THE ABOVE COMPANIES DRILLED DRY WELLS AND GHANA WAS KNOWN IN THE CAPITAL OF THE OIL WORLD IN HOUSTON AS ‘THE GRAVEYARD’. Investors felt oil exploration was too risky and too expensive with the conditions of our Petroleum Agreements ‘business unfriendly'. In fact at the first energy conference with Houston Partnership 2001 in Houston organized by GNPC Phase 2 and Ghanaian Diasporas[ with community leader Mr. George Owusu] Mr. John Van Dyke of Vanco Energy was the only one who decided to risk coming to Ghana. Even when he came, Vanco Energy declined any block near the shallow waters where the above companies had recently dug dry wells. Consequently, Vanco the first oil company to come to Ghana requested an oil field that is deeper and unexplored by anyone.

This is what the GNPC phase 2 inherited in 2001 and it was not surprising that a common sense decision was taken to refocus on oil /gas. The task of rebranding Ghana in the oil and gas industry was not easy and the Commonwealth Energy experts and the reputable US American Negotiators Association were consulted, who both unanimously advised that our terms had to be modified to make our Petroleum agreements 'business friendly' to first attract investors and then if Ghana is successful, we could demand more in subsequent agreements. IT IS AN UNDISPUTABLE FACT THAT 2 DIASPORANS [total of 60 years of transparent experience in USA] Mr. George Yaw Owusu and Dr Kwame Bawuah-Edusei who formed the EO [Edusei/Owusu] Group in August 2002 first had a partnership with Ennex Company of Ireland to apply for West Cape Three Point block. The partners negotiated a memorandum of understanding with the Ghana Government. Unfortunately, Ennex declined to sign due to their percieved risk of the block. They simply developed cold feet when it came time to commit.

It is also important for all to note that Hunt Energy of Houston had in the previous year dug three [3] wells in the same West Cape Three Points block and were unsuccessful just a year prior. The persistence of the EO Group led them to bring Chinese company China National Petroleum Company whose experts came to Ghana in 2003 to review the data. The Chinese verdict was West Cape Three Points was not feasible. The Swiss Company Addax Petroleum Services was also consulted but they did not even make the trip to Ghana- all due to the risk. The EO Group only two partners persisted until they were able to convince Kosmos Energy of Dallas to come to Ghana.

Notice that when the going got tough and no company wanted to come to Ghana to explore for oil, GNPC Phase 1 under the NDC and Tsatsu Tsikata elected to use our nation's resources to literally roll the dice in ultra-risky investments that had nothing to do with oil and gas exploration. In contrast, when the going still was tough, GNPC Phase 2 under the NPP administration focused on oil and gas exploration and was ultimately successful in bringing investors who found oil in commercial quantities for our nation. It is a fact that Kosmos/EO partners won an open bid on pure merit. Since Kosmos Energy experts were the same ones who found oil for Equatorial Guinea in 1999 [then called Triton] they had an established track record of "Graveyard" success. Their technical personnel were from the likes of Harvard, Oxford and Duke Universities. In addition, Kosmos was backed by the largest private equity firm in the world-BLACKSTONE GROUP. The other competitors Sahara Energy and Africa Petroleum were no match period.

The multiagency negotiating team approved the Petroleum agreement in a legal and transparent way. The Petroleum Agreement was subsequently approved by the GNPC Board, folowed by the Ministry of Energy. After that, the Cabinet and finally the Ghana Parliament all approved the agreement. These were all transacted in a transparent and legal manner.

All through this period of oil business promotion, negotiations and signing of agreements, the EO partners were neither governmental official nor party officials.

IT is a fact that indeed Kosmos/EO found the oil in record time in July 2007 [from agreement signing to first oil] and have subsequently drilled six positive wells to date with their partners. That is a record in Ghana. Kosmos/EO and their partners have therefore proven their worth to Ghana beyond any reasonable doubt in finding a world class oil field.

Unfortunately, one partner ANADARKO waited until the oil was found and requested to review Kosmos and EO again. They spend millions and could not find any smoking gun. This idea of requesting someone to prove a negative in retrospect is a known logical impossibility and EO Group , which has become the grass among the elephant has been made a scope goat. In fact, was it not for the lies and fabrications, Ghanaians should be singing the praises of EO and Kosmos rather than subjecting them to this campaign of smear and inuendos by a party that failed before and is failing again today in government. This tactic of Anadarko is well known in the oil industry. It is used to squeeze out small indigenous companies. To support that fact Anadarko waited until immediately after the elections to reactivate a baseless review of EO to the incoming new government. This has led to pure political witch hunting which is not good for the country. A politicized oil industry puts off reputable companies and it creates an aura of instability in a country. Furthermore, this penchant for reviewing agreements of past administrations from the approach of guilty-until-proven-innocent makes it difficult to attract international investors. No wonder Ghana's investment risk ranking has climbed almost five points in just ten months into this administration.

The sale of Kosmos' interest is an industry norm. Some companies specialize in exploration and once they have found the oil, they sell their interest and make way for others who specialize in production to come in and produce the oil for commercial use. Ghana should manage this sale transparentlyand mindful of the fact that in business, just as in life, you get what you pay for. We cannot go for cheap and end up with a company whose technology is inferior. Open the bid for the best company with required resources to produce this oil lest MOST OF THE OIL WILL BE LEFT IN THE DEEP SEA.

akua bonsu