OPEC’s newest member country, Equatorial Guinea, is seeking to lift its crude production after smaller oil companies acquired stakes in offshore oil fields operated by U.S. Hess Corporation, Equatorial Guinea’s Minister of Mines, Industry and Energy, Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, told Bloomberg in an interview published on Tuesday. On Monday, Hess Corporation said that it had entered into an agreement to sell its interests in offshore Equatorial Guinea to Kosmos Energy and Trident Energy for a total consideration of US$650 million , effective January 1, 2017. Hess holds an 85-percent paying interest and is operator of the fields, while Tullow Oil holds a 15-percent paying interest, and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea holds a 5-percent carried interest. The sale is part of Hess’s strategy to invest in higher-return assets and divest more mature, higher-cost assets, while Kosmos Energy sees the deal as capturing “a material position in proven but […]