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Ghana�s discovery of major oilfields is set to transform the country. But there has been little public debate on the fundamental effects that this will have or even on upcoming short-term government decisions that will have a major impact. So I contribute a few thoughts to encourage debate with my Ghanaian friends. So far, there has been more interest in the international media than in the Ghanaian media over the question of whether the Ghanaian Government will allow Kosmos Energy to sell its stake in Ghana�s bonanza Jubilee oilfield to Exxon Mobil for over 4 billion dollars, as Kosmos and Exxon Mobil have already agreed. But Ghanaians should be very keenly aware of what is happening. This issue raises complex questions which go to the heart of the future of Ghana, a future that will be radically influenced for good or for ill by Ghana�s new position as an emergent oil rich state. It may help to isolate and consider the following issues involved in the case, each of which is both critically important for Ghana and a vexed point of dispute in Ghana�s vibrant political culture. So let us look at Kosmos in the context of: Property rights and state interference in the economy Benefit to Ghanaians from Ghana�s mineral resources. The struggle between China and West for influence in Africa Environmentalism Corruption Property rights and state interference in the economy. To start with property rights, it has been put to us by Western diplomats in Accra that the government interference in Kosmos desire to sell its shares to Exxon Mobil is a signal that the NDC has not changed its spots, and is still a statistic party opposed to free enterprise. But we are not sure that is fair on the NDC. Oil and gas concessions are not simple property rights. They are governed by long complicated contracts setting out many and onerous obligations to carry out agreed exploration programmes. A senior government minister has told us that Kosmos� contract includes a clause giving GNPC a right of first refusal should they decide to sell, and that Kosmos agreed a deal with Exxon Mobil in breach of that clause. If that is true, then it is Kosmos, not the government, who are in the wrong. We would stress that we have not ourselves seen the contract and this is the province of the lawyers. But there are plenty of legitimate reasons why there should be such a clause. For example, it would be most undesirable if a single company were to buy up all Ghana�s hydrocarbon assets, establish a local production monopoly, and become an overwhelming power in the state. Equally, the state would not wish concessions to go to company who were interested in shutting down Ghanaian production to boost the oil price form their production elsewhere, were technically incapable of production, or were funded by drugs money. We hope that those examples illustrate that there can be a legitimate role for state intervention: the question is whether such intervention should be exercised in this case.