‘Let locals own 2.5 percent shares in LNG project’ -ACT

Dar es Salaam. The political opposition party ACT-Wazalendo has proposed the provision of 2.5 percent shares in the Sh70 trillion Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project to Lindi residents through their municipal council as a way of benefiting the locals.

Currently, the government is still negotiating with prospective investors on the project’s development in the southern region.

The party’s secretary general, Ado Shaibu, gave the advice yesterday during its tour of the region, explaining that it aims at ensuring that locals gain from the project.

He said this during his meeting with party leaders and members in the Lindi Municipality.

A statement signed by the party’s deputy secretary for Ideology, Publicity and Public Communications, Ms Janeth Rithe, said that Mr Shaibu was of the view that 2.5 percent shares should be provided to local shareholders.

“The government should engage Lindi residents, the Vocational and Education Training Authority (Veta), traders and farmers in the region to enable them to understand benefits of the projects” reads the statement in part.

According to Mr Shaibu, the party’s proposal aims at ensuring that more Tanzanians do benefit from the multitrillion-shilling project.

Mr Shaibu also commended the government for making efforts to resume and fast-track talks with the prospective investors after the project was stalled for some years.

“If the Sh70 trillion project is well-executed, it will significantly benefit Lindi residents and Tanzania in general,” the ACT-Wazalendo statement says.

The government and the international firm Equinor ASA are currently engaged in the LNG’s Host Government Agreement (HGA) talks.

Last week, the government said the LNG negotiations resumed on November 8 last year as earlier said by Energy Minister January Makamba.

The project’s negotiations stalled in 2017 following the government’s decision to review Production Sharing Agreements (PSA) with investors in efforts to strike better deals for the country.

Confirming resumption of the LNG negotiations between the two sides, the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) director of Exploration, Development and Production, Mr Kelvin Komba, told The Citizen early last week that the talks were to be concluded early this year.

“Unlike in the past when the investor opted to separately hold up the negotiations, this time both sides are directly engaging in the negotiations,” he said.

October last year, Mr Makamba took to Twitter to say that he had held a meeting with a team from Equinor ASA led by Mr Paul McCafferty, senior vice president, on exploration and production.

“We both expressed optimism about the investability of the Tanzania LNG project,” he said.

During their conversation, the duo scheduled November 8, 2021 as the date for resuming negotiations after several years of a virtual standstill.

The Host Government Agreement negotiations have been on and off, after they initially stopped in 2017 due to technicalities. They then resumed in 2018 - only to stall again, with no progress being made at all .

Initially in 2017, the talks stopped because the oil and gas companies could not agree on modalities - and, therefore, the negotiations had stop until it was agreed that they be undertaken separately.