ONGC keen to grab a share in Ghana's Jubilee oilfield

NEW DELHI: State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is interested in acquiring a stake in Ghana's giant Jubilee oilfield, but the African nation has exercised its first right of refusal on the stake sale.

"Lot of companies are interested in buying Jubilee stake. I'm sure ONGC is one of them," Ghana's Deputy Energy Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kohi Buah told reporters in New Delhi on Monday.

Closely held US firm Kosmos Energy LLC said on October 12 it agreed to sell its Ghanaian assets, including its stake in Jubilee, to US oil behemoth ExxonMobil for $4 billion.

The minister said Ghana National Petroleum Corp (GNPC) had the first right of refusal in case of exit of any partner in the Jubilee field. GNPC has since exercised the right.

GNPC will want to first acquire the stake in Jubilee from Kosmos and then look at selling it to those interested, including ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of the state-run firm ONGC, he said.

"Kosmos violated the agreement by talking to others (for the stake sale) without talking to GNPC," he said.

GNPC, Buah said, was still in talks with Kosmos on buying the assets itself and would consider proposals from potential partners once the sale was complete.

Kosmos, which is backed by private equity groups Blackstone Group and Warburg Pincus, has 30.875 per cent stake in Jubilee's West Cape Three Points block and an 18 per cent stake in the deep-water Tano block.