20101217
allAfrica.com

President John Atta Mills complained to the United States in February this year about the behaviour of an oil company involved in the exploitation of the country's oil resources, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks.

The February 16 cable reported on a meeting between the president and the top U.S. official on Africa, Johnnie Carson, on February 3.

The cable reported Mills as telling Carson that when the Texas-based company, Kosmos Energy, were rumoured to be interested in selling their asset in the Jubilee Field off Ghana, they had denied it. (Kosmos has described its Jubilee discovery as "one of the largest oil discoveries worldwide in 2007 and the biggest find offshore West Africa during the last decade.")

The cable continued: "Later, when Kosmos announced their intention to sell, he [Mills] said the GOG [Government of Ghana] expressed interest in buying shares.

"According to President Mills, Kosmos invited a delegation to go to London to discuss a potential sale, but before the meeting the CEO of ExxonMobil informed Mills that Exxon had entered into an exclusive agreement with Kosmos to purchase the asset.

"Mills acknowledged the right of Exxon to enter into such an agreement, but said that he felt both Ghana and he personally had been misled and disrespected by Kosmos."