GEORGE OWUSU
GEORGE OWUSU
$278 Million
FOUNDER, MANSA CAPITAL
Wealth: SELF MADE, DIVERSIFIED
Education: UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LL.B. HONS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, LL.M
Known For: EO GROUP, GAMIN INSURANCE COMPANY GHANA LIMITED
OVERVIEW
George Owusu is a trained
Environmental Scientist and has worked in the energy industry for about twenty
years, George was previously the Commodity Manager for Shell Oil
Company in the US. He was a known community leader in Houston, Texas at the
time of his retirement. George Owusu has spent nearly three decades of his
professional career as an environmental scientist and also actively seeking to
attract foreign investment into Ghana’s oil industry.
Together with his wife,
Angelina, the couple also run the George and Angelina Owusu Foundation, a
non-profit focused on various initiatives in education, healthcare and economic
development in Ghana.
Healthcare provision in
the Ejisu Municipality of Ghana received a massive boost, following the
proposed establishment of an ultra-modern medical facility in Akyawkrom, near
Ejisu by the George and Angelina Owusu Foundation. George is currently the
principal at Mansa Capital, an international private equity firm.
NET
WORTH SUMMARY
George Owusu co- founded
The EO Group with Kwame Bawuah-Edusei which led Kosmos Energy and other
partners to the Jubilee oil field to start oil exploration off the coast of
Cape Three Points in the Western Region, and subsequently secured for
themselves 1.75% shares in the fields.
E.O Group was established
to interact with industry experts in both Ghana and the USA and potentially
bring oil investors to explore oil in Ghana. EO Group was able to partner with
Ennex Energy of Ireland but Ennex eventually gave up on the deal as they
evaluated Ghana too risky to invest
In 2001 with the help of
the Greater Houston Partnership, a major business group in Houston, Texas
dedicated to the promotion of Business between Houston, Texas companies and the
rest of the world, George Owusu organized a conference in Houston to enable
Ghana’s energy experts from Ghana National Petroleum Company and the Ministry
of Energy of Ghana to address the industry on the offshore hydrocarbon
potentials in the country. Many companies in Texas and the rest of the World
attended the conference, the E.O Group then facilitated a visit to Ghana by
Vanco Energy.
The EO Group without
success with Vanco, solicited interest from many companies including Texaco,
Oxy, Shell, Hess and the China Oil Company but they were all reluctant to come
to Ghana due to the risk (Talking about risk, it costs $1 million a
day to drill an oil well. It can cost up to $80 million to drill one oil
well).
In the course of their
search for a new company to partner, the E.O. Group was told of a man called James
Musselman in Dallas, who had just formed Kosmos and would probably be needing a
partner.
In December 2003, the EO
Group came into contact with James Musselman of Kosmos Energy whose primary
focus was to explore for high risk petroleum prospects in Africa. This group
previously of Triton Energy had found oil in Equatorial Guinea in 1999.
The E.O Group and Kosmos
then formed a partnership to review data in Ghana and initiate the negotiation
of a Petroleum Agreement. When in 2004 the Kosmos / E.O Group submitted an
application for the West Cape Three Points Block, two other companies being
Africa Petroleum and Sahara Petroleum submitted their applications for the same
block. GNPC after the necessary due diligence approved the application from the
Kosmos/E.O Group. The Kosmos /E.O Group partnership therefore won on merit
particularly due to their proven track record, financial base and the caliber
of experts behind them. Later in 2006 Kosmos Energy added Anadarko Energy as
partner to the West Cape Three Points Petroleum Agreement block.
The E.O Group and Kosmos on the sidelines entered into private negotiations and E.O was entitled to 3.5% working interest. It took the Kosmos /EO Group three years from agreement signing in 2004 to find oil in the deep waters of Ghana in June 2007 which is now a record in Africa. It is also possibly one of the largest oil finds in the last decade offshore West Africa. All the four wells drilled by the Kosmos/E.O Group encountered significant accumulation of hydrocarbons.
The E.O Group and Kosmos on the sidelines entered into private negotiations and E.O was entitled to 3.5% working interest. It took the Kosmos /EO Group three years from agreement signing in 2004 to find oil in the deep waters of Ghana in June 2007 which is now a record in Africa. It is also possibly one of the largest oil finds in the last decade offshore West Africa. All the four wells drilled by the Kosmos/E.O Group encountered significant accumulation of hydrocarbons.
The EO Group obtained
whopping 3.5% of the newly discovered oil in the West Cape Three Points in
Ghana. The initial estimate valued the 3.5% worth $200 million annually. It
also means that after ten years of drilling oil, the EO Group partners will be
worth at least $2 billion.
In 2011, EO Group has
sold its entire interest in Ghana’s Jubilee Oil Field to Tullow Oil plc; the EO
Group disposed of its 1.75% shares to Tullow at a cost of $305 million.
The acquisition which was
completed on 25th July 2011 increased Tullow's interest in the West Cape
Three Points license offshore Ghana by 3.5% to 26.4% and its interest in the
Jubilee Oil Field, which mainly operates by the company, by 1.75% to 36.5%.
The transaction consists of EO Group’s entire interests offshore Ghana,
for a combined share and cash consideration of $305 million.
Tullow Oil also issued
10,137,196 ordinary shares of 10Gp each in the share capital of the company to
EO Group to satisfy approximately $216 million of the consideration.
The deal EO Group had
with Tullow Oil was part cash and part shares, with 10 million shares worth
$216 million issued to EO Group and the remaining $89 million paid in cash.
The receipt of Tullow Oil
shares, as part of the consideration, gave EO Group the opportunity to retain
an indirect interest in the upside potential of all of Tullow Oil’s Ghanaian
assets.
Visibility Ratings: A
No comments