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A battle for a stake in one of Africa’s largest oilfields has broken out between ExxonMobil and BP.
The UK newspaper The Times reported that ExxonMobil had agreed a US$4 billion deal with the Texas-based exploration company Kosmos Energy that would see the US supermajor take a 25% stake in the Jubilee field off the coast of the West African state.
However, the Ghanaian government refused to approve the deal in the belief that the process for awarding the concession for Jubilee was moving too quickly. The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) also alleged that Kosmos had broken an agreement with the state-owned oil company that forbid it from revealing sensitive information about the field to a third party.
GNPC now wants to invite rival bids and is also considering buying out Kosmos Energy entirely. Exxon meanwhile believe that the contract is legally binding and has threatened legal action if it is not allowed to proceed.
“Exxon have to think very hard about what they want to do. Do they really want to enter a new country by taking the host government to court?” a source is quoted by The Times as saying. “It would be an odd way to spend $4 billion.”
BP are said to be willing to buy a stake in the field in conjunction with Chinese energy giant Sinopec.
