Can you introduce Kosmos Energy in Ghana?

Kosmos Energy is the company that put Ghana on the oil map with the discovery of oil in 2007 with its first production in 2010. We have interests in the Jubilee and TEN fields with our partners Tullow (who operates the fields), PetroSA, GNPC Explorco and GNPC. The Jubilee field has been prolific, having produced about 450 million barrels of oil since coming on-stream, with more to come with the right investment. At TEN, oil production has been about 125 million barrels but has not been as high as expected so we are repositioning it more as a gas field. 

We recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the government to extend the production licenses covering Jubilee and TEN to 2040. The MOU includes approval to drill up to 20 additional wells in the Jubilee field, representing further investment of up to US$2 billion in Ghana over the life of the licenses. As a result of the extension, the Joint Venture partnership expects to realize a material increase in gross 2P reserves.

Ghana has been a significant part of our portfolio, though we also operate in Equatorial Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, and the Gulf of America. We have a strong local and international team that works closely with the Operator.

Can you elaborate on the TEN Field and its gas potential?

The TEN field has been challenging. We have drilled many wells over the years but a number of them have not met our expectation — the data and complexity of the field point towards incremental gas potential rather than oil. We are acquiring new seismic data using Ocean Bottom Node (OBN) surveying techniques, as well as leveraging advanced processing technology to reduce the risk of drilling disappointing wells. The field’s FPSO which was built from scratch with high redundancy, that deserves to be fully utilized. By focusing on gas production, we can support the country's energy needs using this significant infrastructure.

Can you elaborate on Kosmos' CSR initiatives and the Kosmos Innovation Center?

The Kosmos Innovation Center is our flagship CSR initiative. Ghana has always had agriculture as the backbone of its economy, but agriculture has become less attractive, especially to the youth. Our goal has been to make agriculture attractive again by introducing innovation to it.

We started by calling for applications from 18–40-year-old Ghanaians, selected suitable individuals, and grouped them into teams of 3-4. The teams underwent coaching to develop business ideas, the best teams received US$100,000 in funding and went through a 3 year incubation program, during which they launched real businesses. Kosmos Energy invested heavily in capacity building, market research, seed-funding and incubation support the first five years.   The program now spans across all 16 regions of Ghana and has caught the attention of the Mastercard Foundation, which has now taken the lead role in financing the program to the tune of additional US$16 million over the past four years. This has enabled us to embark on an expansion program to scale up the funding for new business start-ups. 

The impact of the KIC program has been huge. About 48,000 direct jobs have been created by funding over 80 start-ups, about 450 Small Businesses have been supported to impact over 195,5000 small-holder farmers and students of 700 junior and senior high schools have also been trained as part of our school farm competition.     Over the years, Kosmos has also funded medical donations, ICT centers, school buildings, clinics and water projects. 

Developing local talent is also very important. We currently have GNPC personnel being trained in our Houston and Dallas offices, and we will second more GNPC and Petroleum Commission personnel into our operations as we implement our new MOU with the government. The goal is to develop a pipeline of local professionals capable of running the industry long-term. 

What are your priorities for the next year?

We have eight remaining wells from our 2017 Jubilee Field development plan to execute. After that, based on the new MOU, we plan to drill up to 20 additional wells, supported by up to US$2 billion investment. We are also planning to invest more in the TEN Field.