Accra, July 22, GNA - Members of Committee for Joint Action (CJA) on Thursday called on government to remain steadfast and endeavour to protect the national interest in its dealings with the managements of Kosmos Energy and ExxonMobil.
They said no compromises should be made to placate foreign concerns whose only motive was how much profit they could make from the exploitation of resources of poorer countries like Ghana.
The call was made in a press conference addressed by Mr. Kwesi Adu, the Convener in Accra.
The called on Ghanaians to stand resolutely behind the management of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and government as they defended the national interest.
"We must at all cost resist attempts by foreign interests to annex our oil resources at almost giveaway prices for the sole purpose of keeping us still firmly within the clutches of poverty and underdevelopment," he added.
Mr Adu said the management of Kosmos Energy was in clear breach of the Petroleum Agreement and in pursuit of its commercial interest of disposing of their stake, had exposed data licensed to them, to third parties numbering over 20, without the prior consent of GNPC and the Minister of Energy.
He explained that the implication of management of Kosmos unlawful conduct was that Ghana had suffered significant loss, including deprivation of significant historic and future revenue from potentially more than 20 global oil companies.
"GNPC has been deprived of fees that each bidder would have paid in relation to data it has accessed in respect of the Jubilee Field and the West Cape Three Points and Deepwater Tano blocks," he added.
Mr Adu noted that the release of data to such a large number of international oil companies had undermined GNPC's commercial and strategic position in respect of the future development of these blocks.
"This has resulted in a significant change in the balance of negotiating power between GNPC and the international oil industry, and has irreversibly altered the investment landscape in respect of these assets in a way that constitutes a very substantial negative economic impact on Ghana, unless rectified," he added.
Mr Adu pointed out that provision of data to such a wide group of recipients had reduced its inherent value, and increased the risk of wider dissemination and unauthorised use by enabling recipients to collaborate or pool data to form their own data library to exploit without involving GNPC.
He said "This has led to a loss of control of data, a loss of value in the data itself, and loss of future revenues from the data".
Mr Adu said the management of ExxonMobil, based on the data it had accessed valued Kosmos interest in Ghana's oil fields and offered 3.82 billion dollars in a Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Kosmos Energy.
He expressed concern at the insistence of Kosmos to offload its shares in the Jubilee Field to ExxonMobil alone, at a time when Ghanaians through GNPC, had demonstrated willingness to purchase those shares in order to increase their stake in the oil find.
"The position taken by the management of Kosmos Energy is to enhance certain foreign interests to the detriment of our interest as a nation which should always be paramount. It is also to deprive Ghanaians an opportunity to increase their stake in the oil find in order to generate the resources needed to emancipate them from the clutches of poverty, "he added.
