| Excitement as more gas is discovered | Send to a friend |
| Monday, 20 February 2012 09:40 |
 By The Citizen ReporterDar es Salaam. More gas has been discovered by two exploration firms, further heightening the expectation that Tanzania could soon become a major gas economy. Statoil and ExxonMobil, the two firms which made the discovery, said at the weekend that drilling at a deepwater wildcat in the Mafia Deep subbasin, 80km into the sea, has shown strong indication of the presence of gas. Without giving details, the firms said in a weekend statement that the Zafarani-1 on Block 2 “has indications of natural gas in a good quality reservoir.” The companies, which started drilling the well last month and expected to take as long as three months to complete the assignment, said they were still drilling and it was too early to give an exact amount of gas availability and commerciality. Tanzania has of late become a beehive of oil and gas exploration activities. Encouraged by previous commercial gas discoveries in Songosongo and Mnazi Bay in the Ruvuma basin to the south, investors have poured massive amounts of money to carry out exploration. About 3.5 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves have already been commercialised with natural gas wells being drilled in Songo Songo and Mnazi Bay gas fields. The gas produced is transported to Dar es Salaam through a pipeline where it is used to generate electricity and as fuel in industries. Experts have estimated that Tanzania would confirm the presence of around 60 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the next five years, which would bring in thousands of billions of dollars in investment from the current 7 trillion cubic feet. The government has started plans “to prepare the economy to handle huge foreign investment inflow” in gas production projects. The Statoil and ExxonMobil drill site is 160km north-northwest of the Area 1 and Area 4 blocks off neighbouring Mozambique operated by Anadarko Petroleum Corp and Eni SPA, respectively, in the Ruvuma basin. The two companies have declared discoveries totalling 60 trillion cubic feet of gas in place, and the Anadarko group is designing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. The Zafarani well is also 100km north of the Ophir Energy PLC-BG Group’s Chaza gas discovery on Block 1 about 18km off Mnazi Bay, Tanzania, in the Ruvuma basin. Zafarani is also between115 and120km south of Ophir-BG’s Chewa and Pweza gas discoveries on Tanzania offshore Block 4 in the Mafia Deep sub-basin and 75km northeast of Songo Songo gas field. Pweza and Chewa have resources of 1.7 trillion cf and 611 billion cubic feet respectively, and Chaza, drilled in 2011, has 92 billion cubic feet Statoil operates Block 2 on behalf of Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation and has a 65 per cent working interest, and ExxonMobil Exploration & Production Tanzania Ltd has 35 per cent. Statoil was awarded the Block 2 licence in 2007. It is the first exploration well that has been drilled in the licence, which covers an area of approximately 5,500sqkm. The water depth at the well location is 2,582 meters and the well itself is planned to reach a depth of 5,150 metres. Mr Yona Killaghane, managing director of TPDC, said it was pleased with the preliminary results and was eagerly awaiting further information on this operation. In a letter he sent to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in December, the minister for Finance Mustafa Mkulo said that to prepare the economy for major gas investments, the government was drafting a natural gas masterplan as well as a gas and petroleum revenue management Bill. The Bill would cover the budget treatment of gas revenue. Also the tax regime would be reviewed to ensure adequate cover for the gas sector. This would go hand in hand with the development of staff expertise in the TRA on tax issues associated with the development and exploitation of gas. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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