China Oil finally declares interest in Kosmos Energy’s Ghana stake

State-owned China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) has finally declared its interest in buying the 30% stake of Kosmos Energy in Ghana’s Jubilee oil field.

Chairman of CNOOC, Fu Chengyu has told the Reuters news service Wednesday August 26, 2009 that China is bidding for the stake. “We are participating in the bid,” he was reported to have said.

This is the first time an official of the Chinese oil and gas company has openly spoken about the bid. When news broke in June about CNOOC’s bid in the stake, no official comment was made. Mr. Fu however, did not say more beyond that CNOOC was bidding for the stake. But the bid is said to be worth $3 billion and $5 billion.

Other oil and gas comapnies have also been named to be interested in the stake. These are; Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Chevron Corp., ExxonMobil Corp., Italy’s Eni SpA, and India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Indeed, Ghana’s GNPC has also shown interest in buying the stake.

Texas-based Kosmos Energy has a stake in the Jubilee fields. The other partners are Tullow Oil, Anadarko Petroleum and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC). The Jubilee oil field has17 wells and it is said to be the largest to be discovered in West Africa in the last 10 to 15 years.
Commercial production of oil in the field is expected to begin in June 2010.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi