On Wednesday August 18, 2010, Kosmos Energy announced that its Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with ExxonMobil had been terminated.

No reasons were given, although Kosmos has since reaffirmed its intention to stay in Ghana for the foreseeable future, and participate in the development and production of the commercial quantity oil that it discovered in 2007.

Ghanaians greeted this announcement with mixed reactions, while those still feeling the effects of nationalist sentiments, whipped up by some leading to the termination of the SPA, were elated that Ghana had stood up to 'imperialist bullies,' many in the industry knew that Ghana missed an incredible opportunity.

Given how potentially destructive this aborted SPA can become to Ghana's investment outlook in the international community, it is imperative that Ghanaians know precisely what led to the aborted SPA.

Sources close to the inner workings of the team assigned by ExxonMobil to the Ghana project, intimate that of the litany of factors that frustrated the global oil and gas giant, three things stand out.

The first surprise was that, in spite of the acclaim making the rounds within the global investment community about being investor-friendly, Ghana had become very adversarial in her relations with foreign investors over the past several months, to the point of actually harassing many of these companies.

ExxonMobil, therefore, could not ascertain that this environment was temporary, and was likely to change.

This uncertainty made investing almost $5 billion imprudent, especially, when it was contemplating making Ghana a regional operation center for Africa.

The second issue was the circumstances surrounding the World Bank/ IFC investigation of Stratoil and its relations with Modec.

You would recall that a few weeks ago, it was revealed in the Ghanaian media that Modec, the contractor for the FPSO super tanker for the Jubilee Field, made three payments over a span of about 16 months, totaling $2 million to Stratoil, a British Virgin Island registered company.

The potential violation of Foreign Corrupt Practice Act (FCPA) that these payments represented also prompted a suspension by the Multinational Insurance Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of financing on the insurance covering the FPSO.

Uncertain as to the eventual findings of the investigation, which has potentially negative ramifications on the continued financing of the FPSO, ExxonMobil felt uncomfortable coming in.

The third major issue was about demands by the Ghana government, such as the Domestic Supply Requirement (DSR) that ExxonMobil considered to be unreasonable.

At the peak of the oil production, up to 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) would be coming out of the Jubilee Field.

Out of that total, Ghana was demanding that 45,000 barrels be made available to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), and another 27,000 barrels be made available to the Aboadzie Thermal Plant, in addition to the 18,000 barrels or so, that Ghana will be receiving for her share of the total interests.

That leaves 30,000 barrels available for the remaining partners to sell in the international market. Although the 72,000 bpd request that Ghana is requiring for domestic use would be paid for, the payments would be on credit terms.

ExxonMobil does sell oil and gas on credit terms, but it is a private arrangement that is never forced upon the global oil and gas producer.

Then there is the government indecision that one ExxonMobil official said the company has not encountered before.

ExxonMobil informed the President of its intentions to buy Kosmos one year ago, when Mills attended a United Nations event in New York.

Since then, about three different committees have been set to study the SPA, with one of those committees making a trip to London 'to conduct additional due diligence.'