Ghana's national oil company is threatening to scupper ExxonMobil's bid to buy a stake in the country's Jubilee field, the largest deepwater oilfield in Africa.
The national oil company is pushing Cnooc, the Chinese national oil company, to make a counterbid for Kosmos, the small US-based company that ExxonMobil last week decided to acquire by signing an exclusive binding agreement worth more than $4bn (€2.7bn, £2.5bn).
Kosmos, which discovered the oilfield during the previous Ghanaian presidency, has fallen out of favour with the government, according to industry insiders. It is backed by Blackstone and Warburg Pincus, the private equity groups, which stand to generate a fourfold return on the deal.