MORE EFFORT IN UTILISING NATURAL GAS PRESENCE

Natural gas has elevated in significance in Tanzania over the past couple of years. However, the country is yet to fully optimize the potential of natural gas use in various activities despite the discovery of trillion of cubic feet of the resource.

The first natural gas discovery in Tanzania was made in 1974 on the Songo Songo Island (Lindi Region) and commercialized in 2004. To date, this serves as one of the most significant natural gas sites in the country, supplying the precious energy to companies such as Tanzania Electric Supply Company Ltd (Tanesco), Wazo Hill, as well as a number of other industries and power plants in Dar es Salaam.

The upstream area in Tanzania is blessed in as far as natural gas is concerned. The environs are home to the country’s focal point of the natural resource. Aside from Songo Songo, there’s also Mnazi Bay (Mtwara Region) where natural gas was discovered in 1982 and commercialized in 2006.

But despite the fact that construction of the pipeline network at Songo Songo was completed in May 2004 and the first gas reaching Dar es Salaam in July the same year, with commercial operations also beginning in July 2004, there is more Tanzania can do to ensure natural gas presence in the country is realized in its entirety.

We cannot downplay the important role natural gas has come to play since it was discovered. For example, the Songo Songo network transports natural gas to Dar es Salaam where it is used as the principal fuel for turbine generators at Songas Ubungo power plant to generate about 190MW of electricity – or 45 percent of the country’s capacity – for the national grid.

What this means is that Tanzania’s dependence on hydropower as the major supplier of electricity is lessening as other alternative energy sources, specifically natural gas continue to expand in relevance. So, this presents the government with very key questions to ponder as investments are being worked out and policies related to natural resources are reviewed: where should the country put more focus on when it comes to sourcing for energy? Are the current infrastructures conducive to the exploration of all energy sources? How can investors, both local and foreign play a bigger part in ensuring the country taps into its full potential in natural exploration?

Influence changes

These questions are key as the government readies to amend the Model Production Sharing Agreements (MPSAs) of 2013 to loosen conditions in the oil and gas sector after failing to sell any exploration blocks in the past nine years.

The questions are also important considering that Tanzania discovered natural gas reserve in the volume of 57 trillion cubic feet after surveying only 30 percent of the land, meaning that there’s a possibility of uncovering more natural gas basins both onshore and offshore if the remaining 70 percent of the land is explored. But that’s not the end, only 0.9 percent of the discovered 57TCB of natural gas is being utilized – a dismal number by all measures.

With all these possibilities and the opportunities that lay in wait, the government needs to figure out how the country will make use of all the discovered natural gas and also bolster exploration efforts to the rest of the virgin land beckoning.

There are a plethora of benefits of using natural gas that cut across industrial and domestic use.