Tanzania To Launch First Oil And Gas Bid Round In Over A Decade

Tanzania is set to launch its fifth oil and gas licensing round in May, offering 26 exploration blocks to investors. This will be the country’s first bidding round since 2014.

Charles Sangweni, Director General of Tanzania’s Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority (PURA), confirmed that the blocks have been identified and data is in place.

Three blocks are located in Lake Tanganyika, while the rest are in the Indian Ocean.

Tanzania aims to launch the bid round at the Africa Energies Summit in London in May.

The country is believed to have massive natural gas resources, estimated at 57 trillion cubic feet.

Tanzania also has a planned $42-billion LNG export project, but progress stalled last year as Shell and Equinor awaited the signing of agreements to begin development. The project, which connects offshore natural gas discoveries to an export terminal, has been in development for nearly a decade.

After acquiring BG Group in 2016, Shell became operator of offshore blocks 1 and 4, alongside partners Medco Energi and Pavilion Energy. These blocks hold 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Equinor, meanwhile, has made nine discoveries in block 2, with estimated volumes exceeding 20 trillion cubic feet.

Energy Minister Doto Biteko announced last month that Tanzania aims to conclude negotiations with project developers on tax incentives by June.

Source: https://energynewsafrica.com