By ABDUEL ELINAZA, 1st November 2010 @ 16:00, Total Comments: 0, Hits: 153
TANZANIA is focusing on natural gas exploration in a bid to increase output to meet the growing demand at the East Africa market.
The other four East African Community (EAC) member states -Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are desperately eyeing Tanzania?s natural gas for their industrial production and electricity generation.
Already, the EAC is carrying out a feasibility study to establish the possibility of laying a gas pipeline from Dar es Salaam through Tanga to Mombasa. Acting Commissioner for Energy and Petroleum in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Mr Prosper Victus said the country does not only want to tap region?s gas demand but also generate electricity for export.
?We are in final stages of connecting with Zambia and Kenya power network so that we would be able to sell or buy electricity in case of surplus or deficit,? Mr Victus said over the weekend in Dar es Salaam.
He said that the government will fully tap on these opportunities using its natural resources, natural gas in particular. Last week Ophir Energy Tanzania, upstream oil and gas company, said it had successfully carried out exploration that established vast deposits of the commodity in Mafia offshore Basin, about 400 kilometres south-east of Dar es Salaam.
?The company successfully encountered a natural gas column of between 60 and 2,625 million metres which is likely to have great commercial viability?, he said.
On his part, Director of Exploration Production and Technical Services with the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), Mr Halfani Halfani, said the discovery will bring the number of gas fields to five and increase the national gas output capacity.
Other fields are Songo Songo and Mnazi Bay that have the output capacity of four trillion cubic foot (TCF) while Mkuranga and Mandawa are both figuring to have 1.5 trillion TCF. Between September this year and before end of next year,ten offshore wells are expected to be drilled at a cost of 500 million US dollars.
While the explorations continue, investors shifted their attention at construction of about 600 kilometres natural gas pipeline. Orca Exploration Group is currently carrying out a feasibility study at its own cost to construct the gas pipeline between Dar es Salaam and Mombasa to tap the potential market.
Orca, based in British Virgin Island, got a green light to form its board of directors for the rights issue to raise 18.62 million US dollars that is required fund for the project. At the same time, EAC feasibility study for the same onshore route is currently underway.
The EAC has engaged a team of consultants, COWI (Denmark), COWI (Tanzania Ltd) and Runji & Partners (Kenya) to carry out the study. The EAC study started in July this year and is expected to be completed by February next year.
Findings of the study will be used to pave the way for construction which is expected to be done in phases. On the domestic market, Songas is planning to increase capacity from 90 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd) to 140 MMcfd by January 2013.
There has been a shift on the dependence of hydro-power to generate electricity among the Sub-Saharan countries following drought spells in the past five years. The focus now is to look for other alternative energy like gas to generate electricity.
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