Ghana’s appeal to Westerners to come and invest here is unlikely to attract the much-expected response, following Kosmos Energy’s cancellation of its deal with US oil giant ExxonMobil Corporation recently. The move, which is alleged to have been orchestrated by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), is highly tipped to affect the country’s chances of making any headway in its future investment appeals to other foreign investors. Natznet Tesfay, a forecaster in London-based Exclusive Analysis Limited’s Africa division, who disclosed this, said Ghana’s credibility for investors “is likely to be hampered by this development.” The development would thus see Dallas-based Kosmos, which had previously focused on exploration, venturing into commercial oil production when the activity officially begins offshore at the Jubilee field by December 2010, the company confirmed on August 18. According to the African Development Bank, economic growth, which averaged six percent annually over the last five years, has helped to lure investors with projects worth $662.7 million during the second quarter of 2010 - a six-fold surge from 2009 - the Ghana Investment Promotion Center revealed in July. Kosmos had offered its 30 percent stake in the Jubilee Oilfield to ExxonMobil for $4 billion. But Government, immediately after the deal was announced in October, sought to purchase Kosmos’s stake through state-owned GNPC. “The way the whole thing has been handled has created the perception that the country may turn east to Asian players,” said Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, an analyst with New York-based DaMina Advisors, in a phone interview with Bloomberg on August 19. GNPC had wanted to secure Kosmos’s share with financing from a Chinese company such as China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). Bloomberg says Nana Boakye Asafu-Adjaye, Managing Director of GNPC, declined to comment when it reached him by phone on August 20. But Government had accused Kosmos of violating the terms of its agreement with the company though GNPC had denied the allegations. Energy Ministry spokesman Edward Bawa states that government has not done anything to discourage any investor from investing in Ghana, adding companies that have come to Ghana, especially those who have followed and respected the laws governing their activities, have always had the terms of their agreements respected by government as well. Credit: Samuel Boadi Source: Business Guide/Ghana