President John Agyekum Kufuor has hailed as very significant to the economic development of the nation the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities. Kosmos Energy, an American Oil Exploration Company struck the oil, which is said to be of high quality and promises to be in commercial quantities after 14 months offshore exploration in the area. Kosmos Energy, Anadarko Petroleum and Tullow Ghana Limited, consortium engaged in oil exploration simultaneously announced the discovery of oil west of Cape Three Points, offshore Republic of Ghana. Kosmos made the announcement in Accra, while Tullow and Anadarko made theirs in London and New York, respectively. "We are pleased that the first well in our multi-well West Africa exploration drilling program is a success," Mr. James C. Mussleman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, said when he called to announce and to show a sample of their finding to President Kufuor at the Castle, Osu, on Monday. He did not give figures of the exact quantity in the reserve, discovered after drilling 312 feet of the seabed, as they were still engaged in the process of developing the natural resource. Mr. Mussleman said Kosmos, which has signed a seven-year exploration agreement with Ghana was looking forward to working with the Government and Ghanaians to develop the resource. The CEO said he was aware of the high expectations of Ghanaians and asked that they should give the Company time to carry out the operation. President Kufuor expressed appreciation to God about the discovery and said the news should embolden and encourage all Ghanaians to be optimistic about the country's future as the prospects were bright. He challenged Kosmos, the same Company that found oil in Equatorial Guinea and after discovery was able to extract the resource in no time to break its own record by moving quickly to develop Ghana's reserve. This, he said, would enable the country, which has been grappling with energy problems to become an oil producer. "We pray that the Company would be successful so that our country would not become a beggar in the energy sector anymore." The Government, he said, has since 2001 been making efforts to address the problem of energy and that consistent with this vision, the Board of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), which was then a general purposes entity was reconstituted. President Kufuor said the discovery was a vindication of the good decision of ensuring that the GNPC concentrated on its core business operation. Mr Kofi Adda, the Energy Minister, said five Companies signed Petroleum Agreements with the country last year, and were currently engaged in various levels of exploration activities, some in deepwaters. Kosmos Energy, the block operator and Anadarko, technical operator, hold 30.875 per cent of the shares each, Tullow has 22.896 per cent, Sabre Oil and Gas Limited has 1.854 per cent and E.O. Group, a Ghanaian oil and gas company, holds 3.5 per cent of the shares in the Block. Source: GNA