Ghana has not YET blocked Exxon-Kosmos deal

ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana has not blocked a planned $4 billion oilfield stake sale to Exxon Mobil by Kosmos Energy but still threatens to do so if the parties do not abandon the deal, the West African country's energy minister said Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday the government had blocked the deal -- something it has been threatening to do since October -- and would only allow the state oil company to buy the stake.

Kosmos agreed last autumn to sell its 30.875 percent interest in The West Cape Three Points Block and its 18 percent stake in Deepwater Tano Block in the Gulf of Guinea to Exxon for around $4 billion, sources close to the deal said.

Ghana's top oil official said on Tuesday the government had written to Exxon about the deal but had not gone beyond repeating the threat.

"If they continue with the current deal, Ghana will not give its consent to it," Energy Minister Joseph Oteng-Adjei told reporters at a conference.

Kosmos sources have said the government can only block a contract if it can show that the potential buyer lacks sufficient technical skills or financial strength -- a hurdle at which Exxon, the world's largest non-government controlled oil company, is unlikely to fall.

Analysts said if the government were to block the deal, it could face legal action from Kosmos, which is backed by U.S. private equity funds Blackstone Group LP and Warburg Pincus LLC , and that its threats could be intended to scupper the sale without opening itself up to a lawsuit.

Exxon spokesman Patrick McGinn said the company did not "comment on the details of commercial discussions or opportunities," adding only that it "routinely evaluates potential development opportunities around the world."

The Jubilee field, which crosses the two blocks in which Kosmos holds stakes, has 800 million barrels of recoverable reserves, Oteng-Adjei said.

Jubilee was discovered in 2007 by a partnership of the Ghanaian government and international firms, and is expected to begin producing in the last quarter of this year.