February 21, 2014: BIG OIL, BIG MONEY and even BIGGER PROBLEMS all have one thing in common . . . BIG MEN. Prophetic words from late influential economist, Milton Friedman opens this documentary by highlighting the unbridled excess of man and questions – “Is there some society that you know that doesn’t run on greed?”
The year is 2007 and the price of oil hits another high of $92 a barrel. With the discovery of a massive oilfield off the coast of Ghana by Kosmos Energy, a small Texas oil company backed by private equity titans Warburg Pincus and The Blackstone Group, the seeds of success seemed sown. What nobody could foresee is the protracted upheaval and political maelstrom that was about to engulf Accra, Ghana and put one of the biggest commercial oil discoveries and everyone involved in jeopardy. Big Men is the compelling documentary about taking the ultimate risk and the lengths power-brokers on both sides of the Atlantic will go to achieve that reward.
A deal in the life of Jim Musselman, CEO of Kosmos Energy takes us through the connective tissue of his early financing arrangement with the original Jubilee Oilfield founder George Owusu of the EO Group. Mussulmen’s objective was to get to first oil by 2010 without engaging in a Nigerian-esque oil fiasco. Director, Rachel Boynton’s meticulous primer on the corruption that had derailed Ghana’s oil industry neighbour Nigerian between 1960 and1999 to the tune of $440 billion, (effectively hollowing out that country’s infrastructure without the requisite financial trickle-down) serves as fair warning. This gave rise to a militant anti-oil faction that demanded more profits for the poorest of the poor living in the Niger Delta.
The wide spread fear of foreign companies exploiting Ghanaian oil reserves beats at the core of Big Men. Musselman and his US financiers do their best to assuage these fears from glad-handing with Ashanti Kings to the country’s president but, with African history as a guide, changing hearts and minds isn’t easy. Add to this a hotly contested presidential election and a new layer of uncertainty to the existing Kosmos Plan of Development is born.
In the vein of award winning PBS documentaries, Big Men always gives you the sense of insider access. Whether in a New York boardroom with Jeffery Harris, Managing Director of Warburg Pincus helming conversations on strategic investing or portaging through the jungle with Nigerian militants, every note rings true. Boynton lends an in-depth analytical perspective with narrative nuances on the anatomy of this now precarious offshore financing deal further re-engaging viewers with each twist. Feet get cold, management abilities get questioned, next steps get challenged and the 2008 global market meltdown has everyone looking for exits. As whispers of bribery grow louder, separate investigations by the Departments of Justice in United States and Ghana ramp up. BIG OIL really does mean BIG PROBLEMS.
Verdict: 4 out of 5: From private equity boardrooms on Wall Street to the Ghanaian ballot boxes; from Ashanti King receptions to down home Texas roots, Big Men’s bi-coastal coverage reveals the power plays, tactics and corruption that has become synonymous in the oil industry. Boynton stone turning narrative provide a clear understanding of the risks reward paradigm each player is up against as they execute the art of the deal. Who will blink and who will bluff in the big boy business of BIG OIL.
Final Thought: Oil has become an equal opportunity corruptor.
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA
Language: English, Ijaw, Twi
Director: Rachel Boynton
Writer: Rachel Boynton
Producer: Rachel Boynton
Executive Producers: Steven Shainberg, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Dan Cogan, Diana Barrett, Jim & Susan Swartz, Christina Weiss Lurie, Jeffrey Lurie, Rick Rosenthal
Screening Date: March 5th, 2014 – Bell TIFF Lightbox
Runtime: 99 minutes
