26-10-09 The Government of Ghana, acting through the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has rejected the talks going on between Kosmos Energy, owners of the Jubilee oil Fields in Western region and ExxonMobil, an American oil conglomerate, for a possible sale of the shares of the former at an estimated cost of $ 4 bn.
The decision follows the breach of provisions of the agreement, signed between Kosmos Energy and the GNPC.

The investigations into the saga reveal that per the agreement that Kosmos signed with GNPC, the oil drilling company was not supposed to disclose any data about the oil find to any third party, without the consent of GNPC.
Unfortunately, Kosmos Energy in its haste to sell the fields to ExxonMobil opened a data room in Houston-America, and allowed the latter to have access to sensitive information when the oil company had not consulted GNPC, as spelt out in the agreement. At the time this breach occurred, the same Kosmos had begun talks with the government in London, for her to buy the Jubilee fields after the former had indicated its intention to sell it.

A source at the Energy Ministry confided in this reporter that if ExxonMobil had followed the right procedure in buying out the fields, government would have considered it, but now the door has been shut. The Chief Executive Officer of ExxonMobil, Rex W. Tillerson is reportedly making frantic efforts to meet President Mills for his company to lend money to Ghana, to enable her buy the fields, but the request has been turned town.
A leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr David Annan confirmed that all efforts by the ExxonMobil CEO to meet President Mills have proved futile.

Two oil giants -- the British Petroleum (BP) and CNOOC Limited, a Chinese state owned oil company -- have both expressed interest in supporting the government to buy the stake, which the government through GNPC is seriously considering. The two companies have agreed to dole out hard currencies to GNPC to buy the fields,after which they would be entitled to a percentage of the shares.
It is these fruitful talks that have pushed ExxonMobil to change their mind from an outright purchase of the field from Kosmos Energy, to lending money to the government of Ghana to buy the shares. It was also established that geo-political considerations are also playing vital roles in the scramble for the Jubilee Fields.

American companies are not happy with the influx of their Chinese counterparts into Africa, hence the seeming "fight" over access to the rich oil fields. An official source contacted at the Ministry of Energy confirmed that GNPC was in talks with both BP and the CNOOC of China. He also confirmed that government was not interested in the ExxonMobil-Kosmos Energy deal.
The source argued that government had done all scientific analysis and has come to the conclusion that the BP-CNOOC deal will be in the interest of the country, when it is finally clinched. BP has the expertise in the development of oil fields whilst CNOOC has got the financial clout to pump in the needed finances.

The Ministry of Energy official told that under the agreement that are being worked out, the two companies would raise funds for GNPC to buy the fields, after which parts of the shares would be offloaded to them at a higher price.
Government has also estimated to earn between $ 250 and $ 300 mm in income taxes annually, after the shares have been sold to BP and CNOOC. This deal, the source argued, would be better than any other one, hence the government's resolve to pursue it. ExxonMobil has, however, not given up as it is still lobbying top government officials to open talks with them.