BP Studying Bid for Ghana's Jubilee Field

LONDON (TheStreet) -- European oil giant BP(BP Quote) may bid for Kosmos Energy's stake in the Jubilee oil field off the coast of Ghana, a report says.

BP has hired Goldman Sachs to advise it, Bloomberg reports, citing two people familiar with the matter.

The oil company has held talks with Ghana National Petroleum Corp. about a potential joint offer for Kosmos' assets in Ghana, but no decision has been made, according to Bloomberg.

Exxon Mobil (XOM Quote) earlier this month agreed to buy a $4 billion stake in the Jubilee oil field from Kosmos, which is partly owned by private-equity firms Blackstone(BX Quote) and Warburg Pincus. Kosmos entered into a binding agreement with Exxon for its 23.5% stake.

Goldman previously advised China oil producer Cnooc(CEO Quote) on a potential bid for Kosmos' stake. Goldman stopped working for Cnooc before being hired by BP, Bloomberg reports, essentially meaning that Cnooc's approach is dead, an analyst told the news agency.

Jubilee is estimated to hold 1.8 billion barrels of crude oil.

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York .

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