Tanzania
has great opportunity to transform its economy and improve people’s
lives if it makes proper use of recently discovered natural gas
reserves, an official of a
gas exploration company said.
Derek
Hudson, the President and Asset General Manager of the BG East Africa
region, made the comment when addressing during a one-day
journalists’ seminar organised by his company.
He
said Tanzania’s opportunity is due the availability of the market
for the products in the country.
BG’s
ongoing exploration activities were committed to the development of
local capacity and its desire to move forward with the Liquefied
Natural Gas (LNG) project development in Tanzania, Hudson said.
UK-based
Robert Gordon University Dr Antony Wyatt, a corporate lecturer and a
geological expert, specializing on oil and gas exploration
activities, conducted the seminar.
The
seminar aimed at keeping journalists aware of various aspects related
to the management of oil and gas exploration activities in the
country.
It
highlighted steps needed on technical knowhow based on appraisal,
development and production of the natural gas as well as challenges
and how to overcome them.
He
said his company, licensed to do gas exploration activities since
2010, was willing to build business with the government to help the
country's economic growth.
According
to him his company would start producing oil and gas between 2021 and
2022, stressing that BG East Africa would focus much on training and
offering scholarships to equip Tanzanians with oil and gas sector
expertise.
“We’ve
enjoyed significant success in exploration activities off the
Tanzanian coast despite several hurdles such as water depths full of
numerous hills.”
He
said the cost of developing gas industry in Tanzania is expensive
although there are plenty of resources that can help transform the
national economy.
Hudson,
a native of Trinidad and Tobago in Caribbean Island with 1.5 million
population noted that energy industry could build the economy of the
two nations.
He
said his country moved to middle income nation status on the back of
its hydrocarbon resources with the last decade being very dependent
on an expansive gas industry which includes Liquefied Natural Gas
(LNG) exports.
He
said exports of LNG have transformed extensively all sorts of the
social lives to their people. As for Tanzania, he said the
government should work on laid down national policies.
BG
Group recently made its sixth consecutive natural gas discovery
off-shore Tanzania with the Papa-1 well, extending an already
remarkable run of exploration success in one of the world’s fast
emerging oil and gas provinces.
Following
this discovery gross recoverable resources now stand close at 10
trillion cubic feet. BG Group became one of the first
companies to enter Tanzania in 2010 and it acquired interests in
off-shore exploration acreage covering more than 25 000 square
kilometers.
So
far, BG East Africa has spent around $40 million on vocational
training of Tanzanians in Lindi and Mtwara, equipping them with
skills that would later make them have access to jobs in the gas and
oil sectors.
While
the debate continues over how much gas should be sold to foreign
investors and what safeguards should be put in place to ensure
development of the country's own gas and electricity sector, the
government is finalizing its natural gas policy,
TPDC’s
Principal Petroleum Geologist Sebastian Shana said in an exclusive
interview with The Guardian that, TPDC is building local
capacity to audit oil companies for government to get fair share of
revenues after the companies have recovered their investment costs.
Ends/Edited/JQ
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