GNPC increases shares in TEN and Jubilee by 7%
Oil exploration and production company, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation now owned by Occidental Petroleum, is reportedly said to have sold its 7 percent stake in the TEN and Jubilee oil fields to American upstream firm, Kosmos Energy.
According to deep throat sources, the sale of the shares by Anadarko to Kosmos Energy was completed Wednesday, October 13.
The sale of the 7 percent shares to Kosmos Energy allows Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to own 7 percent more in the TEN and Jubilee blocks.
Currently, GNPC owns stakes of 13.64% and 10% in the Tweneboa, Enyenra, Ntomme (TEN) and Jubilee oilfields respectively.
Earlier, there was trench warfare between the companies engaged in the battle for the stakes in the two oilfields.
Kosmos Energy has been leading the pack for many months.
Reports say that in mid-September, in an attempt to get final approval from the Energy Ministry, Kosmos offered the 7% stake in Jubilee and TEN.
Asset sales are a key part of the strategy of Occidental, the parent company, to pay back debt after long-term borrowing surged nearly five times to more than US$48 billion following the 2019 purchase of Anadarko Petroleum Corp.
Occidental has sold nearly $9.2 billion of assets since then, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Occidental acquired the Ghana assets under the Anadarko takeover.
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Aker/AGM blocks
In a related development, sources in the industry say that GNPC, the Ministry of Energy and partners in the Aker/AGM blocks spent the whole week negotiating in Dubai.
The sources say the talks were not conclusive.
The Government of Ghana is seeking to negotiate the two blocks separately, unlike Aker’s preferred option, which is to sell the two as a unit.
Other sales
The petroleum sector witnessed its first acquisition in May 2011 when EO Group, a Ghanaian-owned firm, sold its stake in the Jubilee fields to Tullow Oil Ghana.
The transaction involved the transfer of the company’s 3.5% stake in the field to the operator in return for $305 million.
After that transaction came the Sabre-PetroSA deal in 2012, which was followed by six years of no transfers in the sector.
In 2018, however, the Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke made a strong entry into the country with a deal that introduced his petroleum company, Aker Energy, into Ghana’s energy sector.
The company paid $100 million for Hess Ghana’s 50% stake in the Deepwater Tano Cape Three Points block (DWT/CTP).
