Oil industry officials in Accra are linking Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor's 18 September statement that Ghana had applied for a US$2 billion concessional loan from China to Beijing's bid for a stake in Ghana's oil and gas industry. On 27 August, China National Overseas Oil Corporation Chief Executive Fu Chengyu announced that the state-owned company would be bidding to buy out the stake in Ghana's Jubilee oil field which is currently held by the United States' Kosmos. Although negotiations over Kosmos's exit have become increasingly politicised, several major Western oil companies such as Italy's Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi and Royal Dutch Shell are also pursuing the Kosmos stake. On 20 September, Fu met President John Evans Atta Mills in Accra and signed a deal for CNOOC to provide the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) with technical and financial cooperation in oil exploration....
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