Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, news that Exxon is eyeing Ghana as a site of potential expansion.  As the article notes:

“…What does it take to stir Exxon into making a big deal for more oil assets? The rare combination of good geology and favorable politics—Ghana, in other words, whose oil reserves look like catnip to Exxon’s tiger.

Exxon is close to inking a $4 billion deal to acquire a stake in the Jubilee oil field off the coast of Ghana, the oil company’s biggest investment in a decade. Exxon would buy the 23.5% stake held by Kosmos Energy. Other companies invested in Jubilee include Tullow and Anadarko.

West Africa has lately become a preferred hunting ground for medium-sized oil companies looking for crude. Last month, Tullow and Anadarko talked up the oil potential off Africa’s west coast. Now that Exxon’s joined the party, the region seems to be earning its bona fides.

For Big Oil, one of the biggest problems isn’t the lack of oil per se. It’s the lack of access to the oil that’s out there. That’s true, to varying degrees, from Russia to Venezuela. It’s what oil-watchers call the “above-ground” obstacles to oil production.

In West Africa, oil companies are finding a receptive government—Exxon does offer lots of expertise, after all–whose appeal matches the potential underground riches. Kosmos earlier estimated Jubilee could hold between 650 million and 2 billion barrels of recoverable oil.