Ghana Poisons her Investment Climate with ExxonMobil Exit

Our intensive investigations have clearly revealed that four radicals at GNPC have orchestrated a propaganda campaign to lie to Ghanaians that they were buying Kosmos' stake in the Jubilee Field for Ghana. That is a blatant lie. The truth is that these TRAITORS were trying to use backroom deals to use Chinese money to buy the Kosmos stake and resell it to the Chinese in order to pocket a profit. In the end, it is China that would own the Kosmos stake, not Ghana. Ghana Oil Watchdog will always seek the truth and disseminate it to Ghanaians to protect our young energy industry.

What makes Ghana unique is that majority of her citizens still believe in her destiny, and that majority will go to great lengths to pursue that destiny on her behalf. The problem is that the citizenry must be given the accurate information. Given the facts, Ghanaians are some of the most objective human beings and can draw intelligent conclusions. But recently, with the lies and deception that have dominated the media in Ghana, it has become imperative that those with facts assert themselves to counter the sinister campaign by these four radicals at GNPC.

For starters, here are a few facts about Kosmos that Ghanaians must know. Its five principals formed the company specifically for exploration in Ghana. The company came to Ghana because the EO group did an outstanding job of convincing them to invest in Ghana. The company fell in love with Ghanaians when they arrived in Ghana. Kosmos spent over $30 million just to acquire 3D seismic data, and expended additional millions to use other unique scientific methods to discover oil in commercial quantities where others had failed in the last 100 years. To date, it has spent over $1.4 billion in investments. It directly or indirectly employs over 200 Ghanaian workers. Even as the GNPC vilified Kosmos, it continued to pay one-third of Ghana's – yes – Ghana's portion of developmental and production costs because Ghana has no money to pay for those costs.

Kosmos has rebuilt the Takoradi Airport into a commercial one and turned the otherwise sleepy twin city into a thriving metropolis. Because it took the chance on Ghana, today oil related and residual jobs have climbed into almost one million. Holiday Inn, Best Western, Marriot, and Hilton are all in Ghana today because Ghana is now a bona fide oil destination. Many energy companies have relocated their regional operations centers from Lagos to Accra. In short Kosmos and their partners have been a huge blessing to Ghana. Yet today, these four radicals at GNPC have made it their mission to paint Kosmos as a monster to Ghanaians. They will not succeed because truth is not on their side.

Kosmos selected ExxonMobil because it “wanted the best company with a proven track record to handle Ghana's complex deep sea terrain,” according to one Kosmos executive. In fact, given the reality of today's market environment, Ghana needs ExxonMobil more than the other way round. Ghana's oil production, when it gets to its peak of 120,000 bpd, will equal 0.2% of oil production in Africa. In contrast, ExxonMobil controls proven reserves of over 70 billion barrels of oil. ExxonMobil is the number one oil and gas company in the world with the best technical expertise, the biggest financial backing, and the best environmental record. These attributes of ExxonMobil are better equipped, more than any other company, to handle Ghana's complex deep sea terrain to extract the maximum amount of crude oil for the benefit of Ghana. According to industry experts, other less endowed companies leave more crude oil on the ground.

In the area of support to host countries, ExxonMobil is the leader in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The global oil and gas giant provides “assistance to countries seeking to implement greater transparency and support initiatives such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Group of Eight (G-8) Transparency Initiative, and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. EITI is a unique collaboration between governments, companies, civil society, institutional investors, and international organizations.” (ExxonMobil Corporate Citizen Report of 2009)

Because of the progress made in these areas in Ghana over the past few years, ExxonMobil planned, according to sources speaking on condition of anonymity, to establish a presence in Ghana and use our stable political climate to prove to other developing countries that EITI and massive investment infusion can foster economic and social developments. All these, however, are not to be because the four radicals at GNPC placed the kickbacks they would receive from the Chinese ahead of Ghana's overall interest.

This selfish few, led by Tsatsu Tsikata, wanted anything but transparency. They would rather deal with the Chinese who are notorious for paying under the table. That explains why they fought this deal from the onset and have vowed to keep the best oil and gas company out of Ghana's shores. Their sinister victory represents a great loss to Ghana. They are abusing the trust vested in them by the president and are even undermining some of his decision.

Earlier on, President Mill always deferred anything related to energy to Tsatsu Tsikata until the truth about the latter began to emerge in the Ghanaian media. As more revelations materialized, the president grew more and more suspicious about the man he had trusted for so long. It wasn't until Mills began to listen to other independent voices of authority that he saw the total and more accurate picture of Ghana's energy landscape and the national and global implications of unilateral decisions made under his administration in the last 20 months. To his credit, for the first time, President Mills began to listen to objective analysis of Ghana's energy industry and its prospects from other independent sources.

Consequently, growing suspicious of the motives of these four greedy radicals at GNPC, President Mills assigned decision making to a newly formed committee whose eventual recommendation sought approval of the Kosmos/ExxonMobil Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA). Dejected and alienated, Tsatsu and his cohorts at GNPC including Kyeretwie Poku, Thomas Manu, Amoah Ntow, and Nii Adjei-Appoye, mounted some of the most sinister media campaign to derail the SPA. So to Mills, the vacation could not have come at a better time. He would use the time away to ponder all aspect of the impasse and make a decision, which is what he planned to do in a prepared speech scheduled for Tuesday August 17, 2010.

Meanwhile, in anticipation of a favorable decision by the president, ExxonMobil had sent a 12-man delegation to Ghana to visit the FPSO to get a head start on its due diligence before the company signs the dotted line to complete the SPA. That is when they ran into the one-man wrecking crew Minister Oteng-Adjei. The Energy Minister barred the team from visiting the FPSO, infuriating ExxonMobil executives. In the end, these final acts by our own officials added to a culmination of a litany of frustrating obstacles that eventually caused ExxonMobil to pull the plug on its SPA with Kosmos Energy.

The vindictiveness and arrogance that have characterized some policy stances of our nation's young energy industry have been more detrimental that Ghanaians can ever imagine. ExxonMobil was ready to purchase Kosmos's stake along with those of Sabre Oil and EO Group, the turn around and loan out the later two stakes to Ghana to bring Ghana's eventual stake to close to 20%. If the staunch opposition launched by these four characters and their master Tsatsu Tsikata was all about Ghana obtaining a significant stake in the Jubilee Field, why would they still oppose this arrangement that results in Ghana owning a significant stake of close to 20%?

For a country still learning the technological aspect of this industry, and not having one pesewa to spend, this would not have been a bad beginning at all. Yet because of reasons known only to these four radicals and their master Tsatsu Tsikata, they opposed the sale. Now it turns out that they all have formed companies to profit from the oil discovery while attempting to destroy the very entities that toiled to bring it about. For example, StratComm, a company owned by Tsatsu Tsikata's wife is the exclusive owner of a $25,000 a month Public Relations contract with GNPC via a non-competitive bidding.

Not only has Tsatsu Tsikata been caught allegedly receiving millions of dollars in bribes through his Stratoil, he now has his hand in Ghana Gas Gathering International LLC. This new bilateral effort between Ghana and Trinidad & Tobago has a strange partner – Petro-Africa, a company that shares an office in London with Tsikata's Stratoil.

We may never know the extent of the damage caused by Tsatsu and his henchmen. What we do know is that they are busy lining their pockets as many Ghanaians continue to believe that they have Ghana's interest at heart. And now all of Ghana has to live with the consequences of their actions. As president of Ghana, John Evans Atta Mills has a responsibility to take control of our young energy industry. Previously he did not know the motives of the people he trusted so much. Now he does not have that excuse. The sinister backroom dealings of these radicals at GNPC have been exposed enough. A whole nation waits.