Power, Money, Greed & Oil Storyville

This programme contains some strong language

-WOMAN:

-Where are we right now? Where are we standing?

I heard stories many times that when oil is found in a place

everyone starts thinking about what he can get for himself.

SHOUTING CONTINUES

'The major stock indexes all hit multi-year highs yesterday

'but it was the Dow that generated the headlines.'

'The market has been on something of a tear.'

'Oil prices started edging towards a record last week.'

'The price of oil hit another high overnight. 92 per barrel.'

'We've never been where we are today.'

It's Copter 4, do you read me?

-'We read you, Copter

-4.' I shall be touching down in just a few minutes.

'The price of crude oil climbed 10 a barrel last month,

'20 a barrel higher than a year ago.'

'Some analysts say it's supply concerns.

'We've had a lot of reports on the past few days of pipelines

'being blown up in the Niger Delta.'

'Investors are looking for a place to make money

'and the thing that seems to be going up is the price of crude oil.'

Risk is an important piece of this.

Just the notion of Kosmos looking for oil in a country

that had never had it before was extremely risky.

There was a high probability that you would invest

some amount of money and you'd get nothing back.

But if they were successful in achieving what their goal was,

then the prize would be very, very large.

And hence the reason to do it.

In the plan we are first oil in second half of 2010.

It takes a couple of years to design the plan, build the equipment,

install it.

We are looking at an 11 billion development on a billion barrels,

net to us 2.2 billion.

Net to the company.

This is a substantial oil project.

It's important we generate enough reward to justify our risk

but when there's a lot of money at stake,

then people's focus gets more intense

and more people from the outside

and on the periphery will look to get a piece of it.

There's hundreds of examples of that around the world,

outside of the oil business,

I don't think that is endemic to the oil business.

But in the oil business it is quite large.

You know, in our discussion today we're talking

hundreds of millions and billions of dollars.

That doesn't happen very often.

Hi, how are you? Good to see you.

-Just got back the news we recovered oil out of our sample too.

-Yes.

-Good oil.

-It is.

-About 54 millilitres.

-About what?

About 54, yes, about 54 millilitres.

-OK.

-Previously it was 15 and they found 28 more.

-Yes. It's good.

-It's all good.

-Yes, yes.

-OK.

'Kosmos was an idea that Jim Musselman had back in 2002.

'Jim came to visit me.'

He was just thinking about starting his new business at the time.

Jim is bigger than life, also physically quite large, as you know.

I don't mean that in a negative sense, he's just a tall guy

and he's very charismatic.

And Jim has this unique entrepreneurial aspect to him.

He's a great optimist and he has a lot of self-confidence.

And that's what came through.

I think I could buy one of those umbrellas

and you think it'd be all right if I carried one of those over my head?

-The work you are coming to do in Ghana merits respect.

-Thank you.

All of us give you that full recognition.

Well, you are very kind. We take responsibility very seriously.

We know how important it is for the country

-and we intend to do a really good job.

-Excellent.

-You're going to be proud of us, I promise you.

-We are proud of you.

-Let's go.

-Don't make the King wait!

'Jim has always been my senior partner and I look up to him

'and he is always there to support me. I'm there to support him.'

This is an old drill bit from a well that we drilled in Egypt

many, many years ago.

I just kept it as a memento of those days and as an inspiration

for the dreams that we had to work in Africa and find more oil.

GEORGE OWUSU:

JIM MUSSELMAN:

Your Majesty,

my name is Jim Musselman, I am president of Kosmos Energy.

We hope that we can serve you well

and we hope we lead to a lot of prosperity for this country

as we go forward with our oil and gas investment in this country.

So, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much. Thank you for the opportunity.

-It's a wonderful place here, so thank you so much.

-Thank you.

Yes, the name of the company is Kosmos Energy.

We're based in Dallas, Texas.

GNPC is a very good company that runs your energy business

and together we're going to do our best to make Ghana

-much more profitable in the future.

-Thank you.

You're welcome.

OK.

Hi, nice to see you. Thank you. Thank you.

George, and away we go. That was spectacular.

How often do you get to see something like that? That was wonderful.

'We came to Ghana because of George Owusu.

'We got our contract for the block from him.'

PHONES RING

WOMAN: Good morning, Kosmos.

When I came here I was the only employee.

The discovery of oil helped?

Mr President, before you leave office,

would you want to do some sort of a press conference?

-It's very important.

-OK.

Especially we will capture the flaring or gushing or whatever

-so that Ghana will see.

-Yes.

We're testing the well to see what the reservoir is going to deliver.

Unfortunately we're not... we're having to burn the oil,

we don't have any way to collect it right now.

So, you mean you pump up how many barrels?

We open the well bore to the atmosphere

-and the oil flows out...

-Gushes out?

Yes, at 40, around 4,000 barrels a day right now.

We're doing it in the name of science.

LAUGHTER Don't do the arithmetic!

It will hurt your heart if you think about it.

Mr President, this is a marvellous reservoir, world-class.

We've got a tiger by the tail but that's a high-class problem

they have to learn to deal with.

You must be a magician to be holding a tiger by the tail!

Yes, sir, I've got Mrs Joel on board, five passengers total.

-We should be on the rig in about five minutes.

-No problem.

We're coming in from the south-east, wind's behind us, clear of flare.

How are you? Good to see you.

-Have you heard about our well? It's flowing back nicely.

-Yes.

-Looks exciting.

-Yes, it is.

This field is going to be worth a lot,

a lot of money once we're all set up.

What is the price now?

The price of oil went up 15 between Tuesday and tonight.

'To a flowing well in Ghana.'

-Flowing well.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Flowing oil.

-Flowing oil.

-For the first time in the history of the country!

-Exactly. Flowing oil.

I was always comfortable starting companies

where it's just been me and a secretary to help me out.

-Are you the first oil guy in your family?

-Uh-huh.

What did your dad think about it?

I think he was proud of me,

I guess, I don't know. People...

We're not great communicators out here, you know, you don't...

you don't tell one another how one feels too much

and so I don't really know but I think he was proud.

These people worked hard.

You are working to make this a better place

and make sure that it gets passed on to your children.

I want to give to my children more than I received

and that's important to me to add to it.

The American model for people making money out of a single oil well

-is so different from the rest of the world.

-Oh, yeah,

because the minerals in the state of Texas, for instance,

are owned by individuals, they're not owned by the state.

You don't have a state-run oil company

and the money is actually going into the hands of people,

as opposed into the state coffers to be stolen by whoever,

which is the Nigerian model.

Do you ever worry about Ghana becoming like Nigeria?

Not really because the people of Ghana can see good things

coming for them personally in the future.

It's human nature to want opportunity,

that's pure and simple what it's all about.

By the time we are through with the assignment

you will find what the Niger Delta is like.

It's not an easy place to survive in.

And not an easy place to develop.

And should the government be doing more too?

What about corruption?

Do you believe that corruption is a problem?

How do you fight corruption?

Well, thank you so much for your time.

'Armed groups are sabotaging oil exports

'in one of the world's great oil-producing regions.'

'People have been cheated by the greedy central government

'and this is why tensions are so high.'

You like the idea of being on TV, huh?

Tell me about... Are you married, Emi, or not?

And how often do you get to see him?

You hear this term, "big man".

What makes somebody a big man in Nigeria?

Oil is the means of getting big money. Really.

But the big money comes to the federal government.

It seems to me that many people in Nigeria want to be a big man.

What do you think?

THEY DRUM AND CHANT

GUNSHOTS

'More bad news for the world's oil markets.

'A section of an oil pipeline belonging to Chevron oil company

'has been blown up in the western Niger Delta,

'shutting down even more Nigerian oil production.

'This attack highlights the vulnerability of the oil infrastructure here.

'So, more jitters for the world's oil markets.'

Half of Nigeria's oil is off-line right now.

So over a million barrels a day

of light, sweet, crude oil that we really can't replace.

That's a very big factor,

one of the bigger factors in the market right now.

The militants in the Delta have proven all of Nigeria's

oil facilities are within their reach.

'This week President Kufuor's government called the first

'oil and gas conference.

'A key question will be how to divide future income

'between foreign companies and the Ghanaian government.

'Ghana might draw heavily from the experience of Norway,

'one of the major oil producers in the world.'

Number-one problem with raw material is that it tends to establish

an enormous cash machine...

-Mr Abankwa, sir.

-Good idea to do this.

And everybody seems to be very committed to it which is very good.

The only part I didn't like was the guy from Norway

talking about taxing the oil companies to the end.

I don't like that part.

-For the guys that come later!

-Yes, the later guys.

The next discovery, the next block.

That's what we want to hear!

I know, I know, I was teasing you, but I thought that was a bit...!

Kosmos' strategy was to be more frontier orientated,

where there were not yet known hydrocarbons

and where the relationships with the government,

the economic split with the government,

would leave more available to those doing the early drilling.

That was the Kosmos strategy and part of the attraction,

so, clearly high risk, but also much higher reward.

It was a good contract for us at the time because there was no oil

in the country. It's supply and demand. It's pure supply and demand.

How can you attract capital to come into your country if you

don't really have a really attractive exploration block to offer?

You have to reduce your contract down where it looks like a good deal,

where the risk/reward is proper because you are taking huge...

We took huge risk to come into a country that had no oil.

We are only getting about 5% of the value,

the total value of exports of gold.

'Ghana's voters are to choose a new president

'as current president John Kufuor prepares to step down

'after eight years in power.'

'The incumbent president John Kufuor is not running.

'How close is this contest?'

'It is a structurally counted sheet.'

This country has a lot of resources

but the NPP government has not used those resources

for the people of this country.

We just wanted to ask you about the oil money.

Have you seen the contract between Kosmos and the government?

-We haven't. I haven't.

-Do you know what's in it?

I don't know what's in it but whatever it is,

we will take a look at it when we come into government.

It's what happens normally that it's not everything that

you see on paper that is there.

We want to go through all of the details

and look at it very carefully but we shall be guided by only

what is in the best interest of our dear nation.

If you felt it was in the best interest of your nation,

-would you be willing to change the contract?

-Why not? Why not?

There is no doubt about it,

I have to act in the interest of the country

and I'm not going to say that because the government has committed us

in the wrong way, I'm going to follow suit.

Whatever I do I'm not going to be vindictive,

I'm not going to be partial, I'm only going to follow my conscience

and what is in the best interests of our dear nation.

"Opposition leader is declared the winner

"of Ghana's presidential election." Um...

Yes, it's on Atta Mills, who was the opposition party,

ended up beating Akufo-Addo in the election.

I imagine that a change in government is sort of a nerve-racking time.

You know what you had and you learn how to deal with it,

but you don't know the new guy

so there's a big unknown, there's a question in the air.

There is, there is certainly a lot of places.

I think Ghana, in my mind anyway,

it's mitigated to some extent because

new guys, old guys, whatever,

they all believe in the rule of law and they're all

well-educated, good people that will do the right thing for their country

and that's... We're doing the right thing for their country so

I don't... If we were some scallywags,

perhaps you would worry about who these new guys are and all of that,

but we're pretty straight-ahead kind of people

and I think they know that and so it shouldn't make any difference.

Patrick, what is that that they're doing?

'The stock market took another beating today.

'The Dow industrial has lost about 440 points.

'Add that to yesterday's similar loss

'and you get the Dow's worst two-day performance since 1987.'

'The big private equity company Blackstone lost more than

'0.5 billion last quarter so the bad news just doesn't stop.'

Oil is off 2.33 now.

It's quite frightening when you're dependent on a commodity

that's gone from 140 to 30-something in a nanosecond.

We're thinking about what's the company worth,

to see who might, in fact, be interested

in perhaps buying the asset.

We have a data room in place where we have got all

the geologic records to show the world what we've discovered.

Exxon Mobil's in the data room today

and at some point in time we're going to be receiving bids here.

Let's talk a little bit about why you're selling right now.

Is it Blackstone and Warburg Pingus who make that choice?

Well, yes, it ultimately will be, yes.

It will happen because it's their money.

Private equity guys need to get the kind of returns that

their investors expect from them

but when's the inflection point, where you can get paid enough

for the potential upside, but you don't give it away?

I would think you might be a little sad to see Jubilee go.

I'm surprised to hear you sounding so calm about the whole thing.

Well, again it's...

You have to be pragmatic about where things are

and there's so much capital that's needed

and this is not exactly a capital-rich environment right now.

We also heard that Exxon Mobil

ask about conflicts from Ghanaian Council,

has called Bill Hayes to find out whether there's conflicts here

and there or what. And so... And try and find a firm,

a Ghanaian firm that they could use so that's obviously positive.

-GNPC would really love an Exxon Mobil, yes.

-Interesting.

-They just take the pot to another level.

-Right.

I'm almost tempted to just go to an Exxon site. OK, come on, guys.

-Why don't you go and pre-empt?

-Yeah.

Do you want to know a number and we'll just point and whisper

in your ear and tell you what it would take?

They could go to the safe and pull it out and pay you as you left!

THEY LAUGH

"You want that in hundreds or 20s?"

-Anyone.

-OK.

How much money will you make

if you sell this Jubilee prospect for what you think it is worth?

We think our Ghanaian asset's worth somewhere between four

and five billion dollars - to Kosmos.

It's a big boy deal.

It's worth a lot of money.

You probably just ought to mount a camera here full-time.

It's going to be nuts!

We were trying to sell the company

but we were going about our business as if we were not going to sell.

So by this time Kosmos, little Kosmos

is in the process of spending hundreds of millions of dollars

to put together this project and we were all on

a real tight timeline to get to first oil by the end of 2010.

Here was Kosmos Energy with a large interest in this wonderful asset.

And we were challenged financially because of the financial crisis.

When one is in a distressed situation financially,

the vultures come circling,

and that came in the form of... in many forms.

All of a sudden I get a very legal letter from Anadarko,

saying that they have grave concerns about Foreign Corrupt Practice Act

violations by Kosmos Energy and wanting to conduct

a complete and thorough investigation.

FCPA stands for Foreign Corrupt Practice Act.

And what does the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act say?

It basically says that if you are a US company

you can't bribe an official of a foreign country.

You can go to jail, there's all kinds of bad fines

and it's bad, so, I mean, it's a very stiff, stringent law.

Hi, George, I just got your e-mail.

This is not just an investigation of yourselves,

it's also an investigation of Kosmos, the way I read it.

I mean, "Was EO Group set up by Kosmos to act as an intermediary

"in its negotiations with the Ministry of Energy?"

I mean, that's...

Right. Right.

We got our licence because of George Owusu and the EO Group,

supposedly the payments we make to EO Group, as a success fee,

supposedly that was passed on to Kufuor and others.

Now, we were great friends with Kufuor

and the new government did not like Kufuor, they were blood enemies.

They said that we'd done something really bad and dirty

with regard to the Kufuor administration

and that we were participants in some sort of a bribery

or whatever in order to get this licence.

The only thing that led them to do that is that the block

had become very valuable, it's worth billions of dollars now.

We are conducting investigations.

Under what circumstances were

those contracts negotiated and signed?

Was everything done,

not only in accordance with the letter of the law, but with

the spirit of the law, for the betterment of the Ghanaian people?

I asked Atta Mills during the election,

"Would you be willing to change the terms of the original contract with Kosmos?"

And he said, "Absolutely". What do you think of that statement?

Well, I think that it's an accurate statement.

This is why we are actually pursuing this investigation.

It's in pursuance of transparency, we must think of the nation.

This is the thing that in Africa we find very difficult to do

as a people. You know, we put our own interest first.

Do you know when this is going to be resolved?

In the very near future.

We get a lot of questions about this FCPA stuff now.

So we just need to, again, box that up.

The way I sold it and we should spin it, this lot,

"The partnership decided to go and do some

"full and complete due diligence before spending 3 billion.

"We did our own.

-"We've got this great file..."

-It's succinct and it says it all.

Yes, and we need to get something in the data room

which just addresses it.

It is just a placeholder for the legal due diligence

because there is just nothing there right now.

And people are asking the question.

Well, it's a legitimate, obvious question that,

at this juncture, you need to know the answer to that.

'We were under huge pressure'

and we kept saying, "There's nothing to this,"

but the fact that we got sort of indignant

that they were questioning our integrity they saw as a red flag.

They wanted to interview me and Brian and all of senior management,

they wanted to send in a SWAT team of lawyers to come and interview us.

Finally our board of directors said,

and this was when all of the financial crisis was melting down.

"We got to sell, we've got to sell, we've got to sell."

And the Board of Directors says, "We can't have any kind of

"smell of any FCPA because we're going to sell this company,

"we can't have that." And so they said, "Do whatever they want."

It was very stressful

because FCPA being tossed around can reduce market value.

The goal of the venture capitalist is to maximise profit.

Can you get the cash?

Or will there be so many other people

and entities involved that you can't earn a profit?

WOMAN ON TELEVISION:

Do you think that this investigation is related to

the fact that they believe Kosmos got such a sweet deal?

You know, the tragedy of this whole thing is under

the Kufuor administration we had a very good relationship with them

cos we work very hard at it, we spend lots of time in the country.

Well, some people might hear what you are saying right now

as kind of ironic, given where your relationship has gone with...

Where it's gone with who? With the government?

-With the Ghanaian government.

-Yes, I agree.

-It's... Well, and there's a reason for that.

-What's the reason?

I was removed.

Our board of directors came and said,

"We've decided to make a change, and we want to make a change

"because we've lost confidence in you." I said, "What have I done?"

"We've just lost confidence in you. You can't get along with...

"You know, you've got this FCPA problem,

"you can't get along with the government,

"you yelled at the Minister,

"and we can't get a POD signed, all of these things.

"We've just lost confidence in you, we're going to make a change."

I said, "Well, who are you going to hire?"

They said "We're going to elevate Brian."

I said, "This makes no sense. It makes absolutely no sense.

"You're going to, you're just going to shunt me aside

"and bring someone else in,

"it's going to make you look terribly weak

"with the government of Ghana that all of a sudden

"you're backing down in front of their demands or whatever,

"and number two, you're conceding we've got a FCPA violation going...

"I mean an investigation going on

"and you're going to sit me down in the midst of that

"and that's going to be sort of an admission of guilt of sorts."

I said it's just silly.

Jim was there for quite a long time

and I think that it's a very stressful position.

As you know, the Kosmos history over the seven years or whatever

has not always been smooth sailing.

The role of the board is to ensure the business is well managed,

that the right disciplines are in place and the right people

are in place and there is succession planning for management for example.

So that those people who put money at risk

have a chance to actually get a return.

A tangible return in terms of cash.

It's about protecting their personal reputations

because they live in a world where people chew on each other's legs

all the time and they have to protect themselves

because if they ever, ever miss a step,

if they are ever perceived to be wrong,

then they're for ever lost in their quest of what they are doing because

they don't have many opportunities to make mistakes in their world.

But merely oil is discovered,

merely oil is found in a part of our place...

And without a certain discipline,

without a certain vision,

without a certain solidarity...

Oil revenues will start around the fourth quarter of this year.

We are laying the foundation for a prosperous industrial nation.

The agreement that was entered into with Kosmos

perhaps had terms

that no other agreement that has been signed recently had.

And there may have been reasons for that but

what GNPC, I think, has tried to do, therefore,

is, you know, also to see how, through negotiating,

to take the increased stake, the benefits of that agreement

can accrue more to the national oil company.

Our biggest egregious mistake was to shut down the auction

and to not take bids from other companies. I begged them.

I said, "Ask for forgiveness after it's done.

"Get the bids in hand and then you'll have the high ground.

"At that point in time, you can deal with these people."

I said, "Please, you've got to take the bids."

That's also the height of the whole FCPA thing,

that was really swirling around at that point in time.

So Jeffrey's on his heels because of FCPA.

You can come to the conclusion that FCPA being tossed around

was a tactic to try and reduce market value,

to get Kosmos to sell at a discount price,

with the potential for the Ghanaians, or GNPC specifically,

to then resell that interest at a mark-up, take a spread.

The whole thing was they wanted to drive the price down

and then turn around and sell it high.

You know, buy it for three billion and sell it for 4.5

and keep a third of that asset for themselves, scot-free,

I mean, they're just as crooked as they could be.

OK, Chris, we going to be paying out on the pipe.

Go about 5%.

Well, this provides GNPC with an opportunity to make a potential profit.

OK.

Because of the size of the prize that we'd unlocked,

everybody was looking for an opportunity.

But Kosmos was seeded on 300 million of other people's money.

Nobody invests in that business, given that it's high risk

and high cost, if, in the event of success, the returns aren't high.

If we'd had to sell the asset to GNPC

we don't think we would have got the full value that we'd created.

So we came up with another plan.

At what point was the decision made

to negotiate with Exxon Mobil privately,

sort of behind the back of the government?

I went to Brian.

I said, "Exxon has got the balls to do this and, you know,

"just go tell them that they've got a free shot here."

So Brian did that.

Even though I have brought Kosmos into the country,

they just kicked me out.

To me, at that time, what I told them later on was,

look, I felt, excuse me, excuse my French,

but that's how I felt, that the nigger has been thrown under the bus.

That's how I felt.

Brian vehemently didn't like my characterisation of how

I was discharged but, hey, I'm sorry, that's how I felt.

Now after the fact they found out I didn't do what they said I did,

how do you put the genie back in the bottle?

Good afternoon.

It's almost a year ago that I left this place.

I'm going to set the record straight. Make you know what happened.

Because you were all here and I don't want you to have

bits and pieces of it, I want you to have the whole story,

so that in future just for posterity's sake,

when somebody asks you, you can say "Yes, I was there,

"I listened to the man and this is what he said."

Two days ago I received a letter

from the United States Justice Department and this is their report.

"On behalf of your clients, we do not intend to take any

"enforcement action and have closed our enquiry into this matter."

Despite all the backbiting,

this is what United States government has said.

And I felt it is important that I share the letter with you.

The government of Ghana came here, ran through the office,

ran through everything, my reputation is shot for ever.

Brian, Musselman, they are here because of what we have.

I was born here so my interest is right here.

So for your own people to put you through this,

just because you helped to find this asset for your country is pathetic.

-What is the next step to this?

-Well, I don't know.

'A new guns for cash programme aims to end the militancy in Nigeria

'and to bring more oil back into production.

'The Nigerian government will offer 400 a month job training

'and an unconditional pardon

'to every militant who lays down his arms.'

THEY SING

HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

'So how do you see your future?'

'I don't know...'

Do you think the amnesty will work?

Tell me what ultimately happened with the Exxon Mobil deal.

-Should be pretty quick, Bill.

-What's that?

-Should be pretty quick.

They're going to have to look at it and make sure and initial it.

Should be.

Right.

Hello. Yeah, we just need to get all of this sorted out.

We're waiting for the ministry.

If they don't deliver it today,

-who says when they are going to deliver?

-Yes, well...

Why is getting this agreement so important?

We need a massive amount of cash put to the project, that's the problem.

And it's going to allow Kosmos to go forward

in terms of raising money and then allow us to have a more cooperative,

mutually beneficial relationship with the government,

as we used to, two years ago. So it's pretty important.

Why the sudden change of heart from the government here?

I think they realised that the status quo

of being in conflict just was not doing anybody any good,

for one of the leading investors in the country to be treated this way

was not helpful for the government of Ghana.

There was rumblings about, this is having a negative affect on

foreign direct investment, so can we please resolve the Kosmos matter

because it wasn't really getting very good press.

OK.

So you guys can't go home until this is signed?

Probably can't go home until this is signed.

Right...

3:30.

This is the first draft of the speech I'm giving

at the first oil celebration.

"The road has been demanding of personal resilience

"and I'm proud to be a part of this journey."

Right. "EO is proud..."

Yes, I gave this to them on a silver platter.

I can't wait to deliver the speech!

Yeah, I hope so!

They're different models to it.

I mean, obviously if they follow the Norwegian model where

a certain proportion of the revenue from oil is allocated

to providing social facilities,

then of course you are going to see a major impact.

It all depends on the administration.

They should use it wisely so that in future

our children yet to come will know that,

yes, our leaders did a good job for this nation.

TANNOY: After a long wait the day has come.

We must ensure that the oil is a blessing and not a curse.

Over the last few months we have worked to reset

the relationship with Kosmos and I think we have achieved that now.

It was in the best interests of everybody.

The oil business is a team game.

So, moving forward, what are your goals?

We will make sure that, as a team, as a family, we will work together

to develop something that can change the destiny of this country.

Our goals are to maximise the value of the assets that we create

and the way we do that is explore as much as we can,

find as many oilfields as we possibly can

and then bring those oilfields to development quickly.

When you have a company such as ours, that's taken the risk,

people need to applaud and reward the risk with the proper returns.

But our emerging countries are going to run the capital off,

are they going to kill the golden goose one more time

because they get greedy?

So, do you think it's just human nature to fight like this

over who's going to get what when a valuable resource is found?

So it is not the case that the automatic response is

for people to sit down and say,

"OK, how do we divide up the loaf most effectively?"

It's very nice.

We are starting with the EO Group, the boss of the EO Group, please.

We have made the first major oil discovery in the country

and I think we deserve a lot of credit for that.

I persevered and came here

because I believed that Ghana had oil.

And I am glad that we have finally been able to pull this off

for the country. God bless you, Ghana.

Thank you very much, Mr Owusu of the EO Group.

The opening is the most watched financial event anywhere

-and we tell you, about 100 million people will see this...

-Vast.

-..particular opening.

-Don't miss the button!

-He's pressing it!

It's amazing visibility

so we are delighted to have you here for this.

Ready to head up? Let's go and do it.

This kind of sucks.

Thank you for coming.

You have six seconds. Five, four, three, two, one.

BELL RINGS

This is how the system works and if you succeed

then you actually can demonstrate that you've created something.

You may have been there at the birth of a new enterprise

and even when the firm no longer has an investment in that enterprise,

the enterprise may still exist.

And you always have the satisfaction of being a godfather to that success.

I mean godfather in a positive sense, less than the Don Corleone sense.

And that's self-serving as well because if you generate

a good reputation then it will lead to the better deal flow

and the most money coming in

so reputation is everything.

-Congratulations.

-Thanks very much.

-So what time is your next interview?

-Right here!

-Right now!

When one stands up there you just see the cameras pointing at you.

But what hits you is the realisation of what you've achieved.

We actually achieved what we set out to do.

We were able to realise the full value of the assets

that we'd created.

Yes, long-term absolutely,

we are bullish on oil prices.

'For me the new challenge in Kosmos is taking it to the next level.'

There's a lot of oil still to be found in West Africa.

Why Africa? Well, let's ask the CEO, he's right here. Brian Maxted.

Do you negotiate with the countries themselves

to get the rights to the exploration?

We do, we try and get there first,

we try to go to those places that are overlooked or misunderstood

or just simply walked past by the super-majors.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd