A deal by a Chinese state-owned oil firm to acquire Kosmos Energy’s stake in oil wells off the coast of Ghana is expected to be sealed next month, a senior official in Ghana’s oil sector said on Friday.
China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC, 中國海洋石油) is in advanced stages of talks with Ghana National Petroleum Corp (GNPC) to buy Kosmos Energy’s 23.5 percent stake in the Jubilee oil field, the source at GNPC said.
“Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the deal would be sealed early next month,” the source said.
“This will bring to end speculations about who buys Kosmos’ stake in the Jubilee field,” the source added.
Dallas-based Kosmos Energy has been trying to sell its stake in the Jubilee oil field, a substantial discovery that holds an estimated 1.8 billion barrels of oil.
Last week, the company reportedly entered into an agreement with Exxon Mobil to sell its stake in Jubilee for about US$4 billion, a move that the state-owned GNPC dismissed as illegal.
Thomas Manu, operations director at GNPC, said the company doesn’t “recognize the Kosmos-Exxon deal.”
“We have the right under the law to cancel any deal that the two parties might have entered into. We have the right to buy Kosmos’ stake if they want to sell,” Manu said.
He said Kosmos violated Ghanaian laws when it shared confidential exploration data with more than 20 bidding companies for its own commercial purposes without giving the GNPC any notice.
The West African country, buckling under a huge budget deficit, expects to start pumping oil in the third quarter of next year, producing 120,000 barrels a day.
The Jubilee field is one of the largest oil finds in West Africa in the past decade.
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