Thursday, January 8, 2009

Who made third oil discovery in Ghana? Is it Tullow or Kosmos?

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi


News broke this morning, January 8, 2009 that a third discovery of oil has been made in Ghana. But in separate statements released by two companies in the oil industry, UK registered Tullow Oil and US based Kosmos Energy have claimed the discovery.

News organisations across the globe have carried the stories and to the uninformed on best practices in the oil industry, this looks confusing.

But in a telephone conversation with ghanabusinessnews.com Thursday evening, January 8, 2009, Greg W. Dunlevy, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer who is also a Founding Partner of Kosmos Energy cleared the air. He told ghanabusinessnews.com that Kosmos and Tullow are partners.

But when asked why neither of the two mentioned the other in their statements announcing the find, he told ghanabusinessnews.com that all the companies are public companies and they have to make the announcements in the interest of their shareholders.

He added also that, it is standard practice in the oil industry for partners involved in oil exploration to make independent announcements of finds without mentioning their partners.

Mr. Dunlevy said this third oil discovery in Ghana means that Kosmos will continue to remain in the oil and gas exploration business in the country.

No comments: