International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group’s private-sector lending arm, plans to increase spending on sub-Saharan Africa’s oil and gas industry and sees “significant” opportunities in Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania.
“Africa is a focus region for us,” Kamal Dorabawila, the IFC Head of Oil and Gas in Africa, said from Cape Town today.
The IFC has invested $400 million in Africa, about 19% of its global oil and gas total, Kamal Dorabawila said.
Ghana expects to pump 500,000 barrels of oil a day by 2014 as it seeks to boost supplies to the domestic market and become Africa’s newest crude exporter. Chairman King recently reported that Ghana will become one of the world’s top 50 oil producers.
Tullow Oil Plc. has drilled 25 wells in the Lake Albert Rift Basin in Uganda since January 2006, of which 24 found oil and gas.
IFC, Standard Chartered Bank Plc, BNP Paribas SA, Societe Generale SA, Absa Group Ltd. and Calyon are among financial institutions that helped Kosmos Energy LLC get a $750 million loan to fund Ghana’s Jubilee Field phase one development. Jubilee “is a world class oil discovery” and Ghana’s offshore is a highly prospective area, Dorabawila said.
Ghana is seeking private investors to build three or four refineries, with at least one being located in the country’s Western region, the site of the Jubilee offshore oil field. Read the rest of this entry »
Kosmos Energy, LLC, a closely held U.S. explorer in West Africa, raised $750 million in loans to fund a project in Ghana. The financing will fully fund Kosmos’s share of Ghana’s Jubilee field phase-one development, Chief Financial Officer Greg Dunlevy said today in a statement. Kosmos Energy, a Dallas-based company, used oil-field assets as collateral to secure the loans, $550 million of which mature in December 2015, Kosmos said. 
