…As They Contract National Security Consultant/Economic ‘Hitman’
To Demolish Ghana’s Image
Kosmos Energy, one of the partners in Ghana’s Jubilee field has hired one of the dirtiest economic hitman in recent US history, to destroy Ghana’s enviable image, using a string of intelligence officers, White House contacts, US Congressmen, as well as local and international media.
From Suite 550 at 1701 K Street NW, Washington in the United States of America, Riva Levinson plots on how to ‘solve problems’ for her clients, using all means possible and to wage full-scale wars against their opponents.
In an exclusive video clip available to The Enquirer, K. Riva Levinson, the Managing Director (MD) of KRL International LLC, a Washington based lobbying firm, noted for accepting jobs other lobbyists shy away from, describes herself as a “Trouble Maker” in the ongoing tango between Kosmos Energy and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).
In demonstrating the extent of her reach in what is a devious conspiracy against Ghana, Riva Levinson narrates her lobbying prowess, which she says involved getting US government agencies such as the White House and US Congressmen to bring pressure to bear on Ghana’s government.
It has turned out that the basis for her negative war against the government of Ghana is also based on a concocted story, which claims that the government of Ghana has changed the terms of the original agreement Kosmos Energy signed with GNPC and the Government, after Kosmos invested over one billion dollars in Ghana.
“I have a company (Kosmos Energy) in Ghana, an oil and gas company that went and invested a billion dollars and the government of Ghana has changed the terms of the original agreement…they’re saying the contract sums aren’t right.
“Not only can’t they (Kosmos Energy) not recover their assets, but they can’t sell the assets and make the rate of returns. So, we are now ‘Trouble Makers,’ she asserts in this exclusive video.
That was obviously a false story, since the original petroleum agreement signed among Kosmos Energy, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and the Government of Ghana, which was underpinned by the terms of a Petroleum Exploration and Production Law, 1984 PNDC Law 84 remained intact.
Riva, in her own admission said in the case of Kosmos versus the government of Ghana, she has deployed US State Officials and agencies to whip Ghana. Unfortunately, the information forwarded to the US government through her has been deliberately concocted by Riva’s company, which is full of powerful men with links to the US governments and intelligence agencies.
“For somebody like Kosmos Energy, I can get to the Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, International Financial Corporation, and Congress to advocate on the company’s behalf,” she reveals.
The Enquirer has established that Riva Levinson Holds a Masters Degree in National Security obtained from Georgetown University in Washington and coordinated “projects” in newly independent countries.
This is the woman who has been engaged by Kosmos Energy, one of the international oil companies (IOCs) operating in Ghana, following their imbroglio with GNPC.
MODUS OPERANDI
In 2003, when Forbes Magazine run negative stories about Ghana under the Kufuor regime when the government had a trade dispute with Volta Aluminum Company (VALCO) owned 90% by Houston-based Kaiser Aluminum over issues bordering on the price they were paying for power supply at a time when Ghana had a shortfall in hydro power generation, it turned out that Riva Levinson was the Lobbyist for Kaiser Aluminum.
Levinson was hired by Kaiser as their representative in Washington, where she lobbied to get especially, US agencies to squeeze Ghana into falling in line.
A scathing attack on Ghana by Forbes Magazine in its 27th May, 2003 edition was not different from what was recently published in the magazine’s so-called ranking of countries as the worst managed economies:
The May 27, 2003 Forbes Magazine report read in part:
“‘The disagreement, involving Houston-based Kaiser Aluminum and its Ghanaian subsidiary, Valco, has led to a suspension of all lending to Ghana by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic), a U.S. government agency that provides political risk insurance and loans to American businesses investing abroad.
"Ghana is being seen as not acting in a commercially reasonable manner that would ensure investor confidence," OpicPresident Peter Watson stated in a letter to Ghana's ambassador in Washington early this year. As a result of Ghana's actions, he said, "All applications for investment support in Ghana will remain under review." Watson, who refused several requests for an interview, said through a spokesperson this week that the agency "is accepting applications but not acting on them at the current time."
This week's negotiations in Ghana involve the Kaiser corporate vice president and general counsel, Edward F. Houff, and a ministerial team led by Ghana's energy minister, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom. Riva Levinson, who represents Kaiser Aluminum in Washington, said the company is "hopeful that a commercially negotiated deal can be reached."
The talks are being closely monitored in Washington, where the dispute has received high-level attention at a number of agencies, including the Treasury, State and Commerce Departments and the office of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick. At issue is the price and availability of electric power for the aluminum smelter at Tema operated by Valco, the Volta Aluminum Company, which is owned by Kaiser (90%) and Alcoa (10%).
This year, in the midst of the controversy between Kosmos Energy and Ghana Government, Forbes again published using false data that Ghana is the 9th worst-managed economy.
It has turned out that Riva Livenson is now working with Kosmos, sending clear signals that she is behind the bogus Forbes report, which basically seeks to destroy the international reputation of Ghana by false and negative report.
In her lobbying report filed in compliance with the U.S. Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (Section 5), Riva Levinson names ‘Support of Client's ongoing oil and gas exploration and production operations in West Africa’ as the specific issues of her engagement by Kosmos.
CONTROVERSIAL JOBS
In Washington, Riva Levinson is seen as a hatchet woman, who takes controversial jobs to ‘assassinate’ opponents of her clients by turning their success stories into spectacular failures, using a close knit of gullible media led by Forbes magazine. She is a commentator on CBS, CNN among others.
In the year 2004, the Los Angeles Times detailed how lobbyist for the then disgraced Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi (leader of the Iraqi National Congress), warned US government officials of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and argued that toppling Saddam Hussein was a matter of national security and moral duty. Levinson was a key figure in the lobbying campaign:
The LA Times, describe her as: “K. Riva Levinson, a Washington lobbyist and public relations specialist, who received federal funds to drum up prewar support for the Iraqi National Congress. She has close ties to Bartel and now helps companies open doors in Iraq, in part through her contacts with the Iraqi National Congress.”
Not too long ago, Menas Associates, a UK based research group stated in a report that ”Levinson…was hired in the 1980s by Angola's UNITA rebel movement (then part-funded by the CIA and apartheid South Africa) to persuade the US Congress to maintain financial support to UNITA, which was then led by Jonas Savimbi who prosecuted one of the most brutal civil wars in Africa against the professedly-Marxist MPLA regime”
In Equatorial Guinea, following discovery of vast oil reserves, Riva Levinson led a lobbying campaign on behalf of US Oil companies, for the US government to re-instate diplomatic ties with the brutal regime of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
The US had closed its embassy in 1995, following death threats to its ambassador and concerns about Human Rights violations. Nevertheless, with the regimes newly found oil wealth, the lobbying succeeded with the re-opening of the embassy in 2003.
"Most of the oil and gas concessions awarded in Equatorial Guinea to date have been awarded to U.S. firms," Levinson said in a 2001 memo to the Bush administration. "This is in stark contrast to neighboring countries in the region, where the United States has consistently lost out to ... [European] competitors.”
During these campaigns, Levinson worked for BKSH (now Prime Policy Group), which despite its reputation for lobbying on behalf of some of the world’s most brutal dictators and ethically questionable corporations, has access to some of the most powerful executives in Washington.
Chairman of BKSH, Charlie Black, has strong affiliations with the US Republican party, going back to the Reagan era. Black acted as advisor to the party’s presidential candidates in all three recent US election campaigns, two for George W Bush and the last as senior strategist for John McCain in the 2008 campaign.
That said, not all clients of these lobbyists are of questionable background or intent. For example, Levinson worked the campaign propelling Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to the presidency in Liberia.
BREACHES
Contrary to the claims by Riva Levinson in her promotional clip, at the core of GNPC’s case against her clients is rather one of getting Kosmos to comply with the terms of the petroleum agreement governing their operations in Ghana.
The national oil company has accused Kosmos of flouting the confidentiality of its data acquired under license, by exposing such data to over twenty companies (third parties), in the course of pursuing their selfish commercial interest, in clear violation of the agreement governing their operations in Ghana.
Whereas Section 22 of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Law, PNDC Law 84 provides for GNPC’s ownership rights over data, Section 23(5) of the same law requires IOCs to keep data released to them confidential and prohibits the transfer of such data to third parties, without permission from the Minister for Energy.
GNPC has argued that Article 16.6 of the petroleum agreement, which states that : “Any Party disclosing information or providing data to any third party under this Article shall require such person to undertake the confidentiality of such data. Promptly after the Effective Date, the Parties shall agree upon a mutually acceptable international petroleum industry standard form of confidentiality agreement. Contractor shall require the execution of such agreement by a potential assignee prior to disclosure of such data; and shall provide copies of all such signed agreements to GNPC” - has been flouted by Kosmos.
For instance, whereas GNPC, in licensing out data to Kosmos Energy, provided for confidentiality covering the entire 30-year duration of the petroleum agreement, Kosmos, in its unauthorised release of data to IOCs in some cases provided for only a three-year confidentiality clause, which risked undue exposure of such data at the expiration of the period.
Whilst GNPC says it has suffered incalculable losses from the unauthorised release of data to third parties, including ExxonMobil, Kosmos argues that the former has not suffered any substantial loss.
Data, in the petroleum sector is all that exists to demonstrate the potential of hydrocarbon within any geographical area and therefore without that there is nothing to serve as an attraction for any exploration company.
GNPC has insisted therefore that as owner of the data concerned it is its responsibility to safeguard such data and also that “non-owners cannot seek to use the property of others to their commercial advantage while claiming that the owner does not suffer any loss from their conduct, as Kosmos claims.”
Again, even though GNPC has insisted that Kosmos invited the companies to whom they released unauthorised data to come and regularise the data acquisition process, since the process was flawed, Kosmos had turned deaf ears to its demands.
Kosmos Energy, by a letter dated June 29, 2010 applied to the Minister for Energy and GNPC, seeking their consent to assign their interest as required under Section 22 of PNDC Law 84 which reads:
“A contractor or sub-contractor shall not assign, either directly or indirectly, his rights and obligations under a petroleum sub-contract, in who1e or in part, to a third party without the prior written consent of the Secretary.”
Furthermore, Section 23 (16) of PNDC Law 84 requires that “A contractor or sub-contractor shall not transfer any share or shares in its incorporated company in Ghana to a third party either directly or indirectly without the written approval of the Secretary if the effect of such transfer would be either to give such third party control of such company or to enable such third party take over the interests of a shareholder who owns five per centum or more of the shares in such company.”
DECISION TIME
GNPC, without hesitation, wrote to Kosmos Energy, declining consent to a sale and purchase agreement (SPA) the latter had signed with ExxonMobil, who had also failed to come forward to regularize their data acquisition and process of negotiations towards their intent to acquire the interests of the former in Ghana’s oil fields.
“Kosmos’ commercial interests have been enthroned as sovereign over Ghana and Kosmos has set dangerous precedents that, if allowed to go unrectified, will do continuing damage to Ghana,” a GNPC source had argued in the past.
It is not clear yet whether the Minister for Energy and government would, in the face of their reservations about the conduct of Kosmos Energy in the recent past, follow suit and decline to give consent or buckle under the incessant pressure being mounted in the international media as well as by some persons close to government.
