DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) – Tanzania said on Thursday it will launch its fifth oil and gas licensing round in May in which 26 exploration blocks will be put to auction to help draw fresh investment in the east African country’s hydrocarbons sector.
Of the blocks on offer, 23 are offshore in the Indian Ocean while three are also offshore but in Lake Tanganyika, Charles Sangweni, director general for the country’s Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority (PURA) told Reuters.
It will be Tanzania’s first oil and gas licensing round in more than a decade.
Past exploration led to the discovery of more than 57 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves that the country is now using to generate more than half of its electricity.
Sangweni said they are targeting to launch the exploration round during an Africa energy summit in London in May.
“This kind of activity (launching licensing round) is required to be conducted in major conferences which attracts major investors of the oil and gas sector,” he said.
“The nearest conference we are targeting for that activity is the Africa Energy Summit that will be held in May in London.”
Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s administration is expected to conclude negotiations on a stalled $42 billion LNG project with investors by June.
Equinor and Shell are joint operators of the country’s mega gas project, while Exxon Mobil, Pavilion Energy, Medco Energi, and Tanzania’s national oil company TPDC are partners.
(Reporting by Nuzulack Dausen; Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by David Evans)
