Force that bully Kosmos to climb down - CPP tells Mills

The Convention People’s Party (CPP) has appealed to President Atta Mills to use all the powers within his reach to back the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation’s (GNPC’s) acquisition of Kosmos' stake in the Jubilee Field. The party has promised to give the government an “unflinching support” in that direction to ensure that Ghanaians have the possibility of being shareholders in the future. “Your Excellency, we urge you to ignore all scheming plots and through GNPC drive our nation to its place in the sun and force that bully Kosmos to climb down,” the party stated in an open letter to the president on Sunday. The letter signed by CPP’s General Secretary Ivor Kobina Greenstreet said the nation has muffled numerous opportunities to attain great wealth because it failed to play the trump card at the right time. “Your Excellency, the right trump card at this time is the ‘Back GNPC Card’” it stressed. There has been a raging controversy over the sale of Kosmos shares. Even though the GNPC has expressed interest to purchase the shares, Kosmos prefers US oil giants ExxonMobil. Concerns have been raised about the financial prudence in GNPC taking over the shares with critics accusing the GNPC of arm-twisting Kosmos to sell its own shares to GNPC instead of ExxonMobil. The CPP's letter used the success stories of Statoil in Norway and Petrobras in Brazil to buttress its clarion call for the GNPC to be given the push to manage the nation’s valuable natural resources. Statoil ASA, for instance, is 62.5% owned by the Norwegian Government and it’s the country’s largest company employing over 25,000 people. According to Fortune 500, the Brazilian Company Petrobras is the 34th largest company in the world and yet the Brazilian government owns 55.7% of its shares, the letter stated. “The stories of Statoil and Petrobras show us that it is critical from a National interest perspective that GNPC is given maximum support to develop similar capacity”. It urged the president to muster courage in taking such a bold decision assuring him that, in spite of the oppositions he was bound to face, posterity will judge the landmark resolution as outstanding and inspired. “It is clear that Kosmos is a powerful, all pervasive, devious and determined enterprise accountable to no one except a handful of arrogant directors mercilessly trying to destroy all who stand in her way. “This is evidenced by the diabolical infringement of GNPC’s data ownership rights, the current diversionary tactics concerning TsatsuTsikata, Stratoil and Modec and the shocking original Kosmos Petroleum agreement signed in respect of Cape Three Points which inexplicably gives Ghana billions of dollars less than other agreements such as Tullow’s Deep Water Tano Block immediately to the West. “These are matters for which we must seek legal redress.” The letter also reminded President Mills that “deliverance of the economic kingdom for a Better Ghana lies squarely in your lap”. Story by Isaac Essel/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana