One of the pioneering crude oil producing companies on Ghana’s bustling Jubilee Fields, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation is selling off its stakes to French oil giant Total SA.
Unconfirmed reports have it that the transaction will gross a total of US$ 2.5 bn for Anadarko.
The Ministry of Energy has reportedly started approval processes for the sale as speculations are rife about subtle pressure mounted on existing oil-producing companies on Ghana’s oil fields to include new local partners reportedly linked to individuals in the current government administration.
The current sale is also linked to Anadarko’s shedding off many of its global operations. It has already offloaded its interest in four African countries — Algeria, South Africa, Mozambique and Ghana — to TOTAL SA, for a total of $8.8 billion last year.
A Deputy Minister of Energy in charge of Petroleum, Mr Mohammed Amin Adam, confirmed the sale to state-owned newspaper-the Daily Graphic.
Anadarko has been operating in the country since 2006, and owned 24.077 per cent of the Jubilee Field and 17 per cent of the Tweneboah-Enyera-Ntomme (TEN) project-an integrated oil and gas project.
The deputy minister said the government would give its blessings to the transaction after Anadarko complies with all necessary the requirements.
“If they are done with the negotiation, then they will send a package of all the documents and the Minister of Energy will look at all that and approve it,” he said.