Tanzania announces that it will launch a round of oil exploration licensing in May

Tanzania announced on Thursday that it would launch its fifth round of oil and gas licensing in May, in which 26 explorations blocks will be auctioned to attract new investment to the hydrocarbon sector in east Africa.

Charles Sangweni of the Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority in Tanzania (PURA), the director general, said that 23 blocks are located offshore in the Indian Ocean, while three others are in Lake Tanganyika.

This will be the first round of oil and gas licenses in Tanzania for more than 10 years.

Exploration in the past led to the discovery that more than 57 trillion cubic feet of natural gas were available. The country now uses this to produce more than half its electricity.

Sangweni stated that they plan to launch the exploration phase during a summit on Africa energy in London, in May.

He said that "this kind of activity" (launching the licensing round) should be done at major conferences, which would attract major investors in the oil and gas industry.

The Africa Energy Summit, which will take place in London in May, is the nearest conference that we target for this activity.

By June, the administration of President Samia Hassan in Tanzania is expected to complete negotiations with investors on a $42 billion LNG-project that has been stalled. Equinor, Shell, Exxon Mobil and Tanzanian national oil company TPDC, are all partners in the mega-gas project.

(source: Reuters)