Must It Come To This, Obama? (ExxonMobi in Ghana)

[AlphaCentauri]

Over the last few weeks the US federal government appears to have gone to war with Ghana or at least Ghana’s energy sector. The Embassy in Accra has successively denied visas to the Minister for Energy, the Chairman of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (also a former Minister of Fuel and Power and an influential Presidential Advisor) and a Principal Human Resources Officer at the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

The US has also apparently announced the cancelation of support for Ghana’s energy sector. At the same time at US Congressional Hearing on the Millenium Challenge Account Congressmen from New York have accused the Mills’ administration of corruption incompatible with continued receipt of MCA support (despite the insistence of the MCA CEO Daniel Yohannes that all is well with the programme) so no one should be surprised if MCA is next to go.

There is little doubt the issue at stake is the future of Ghana’s Jubilee oil field or at least the Kosmos stake in that field. The GNPC HR officer whose visa application was rejected was interrogated by an American embassy “Commercial Section” official about GNPC’s alleged anti-US bias.

Reliable sources also report that the US ambassador has also tied the “delay” in the GNPC Chairman’s visa approval to Government’s stance over Kosmos and in particular to remarks that Mr. Ahwoi made to officials of the US super major ExxonMobil, which have been deliberately and childishly misconstrued to justify a confrontation.

In explaining that ExxonMobil’s technical and financial strength notwithstanding their entry into Ghana’s oil sector through the illegal process initiated by Kosmos was unacceptable, Mr. Ahwoi is said to have used the analogy of the visa and remarked that
“Even if I was coming to the US to turn all your rivers into gold your government would insist that I first secure a visa. Without that I would not be allowed into your country. In Ghana too, we have laws that investors must comply with no matter how big you are. So take it like the visa. Exxon cannot get a visa through the Kosmos route”. ExxonMobil and the US embassy have sought to interpret this as GNPC threatening to deny US investors’ visas!

more http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=182571

[FBI_Un_Sub]

1. At least Bush-Cheney-Rove

sent 5000 Americans to die for oil in Iraq and Afghanistan.