Page 14 - AfrOil Week 10 2023

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Rendering of proposed Tanzania LNG plant (Image: Equinor)

Tanzania completes talks with Shell

and Equinor on $30bn LNG project

TANZANIA TANZANIA has concluded negotiations on a Equinor and Shell, along with their non-op-
$30bn LNG project with Equinor (Norway) and erating partners ExxonMobil (US), Ophir
Shell (UK), creating an opportunity for launch- Energy (UK) and Pavilion Energy (Singapore),
ing the development of the country’s vast off- plan to build the LNG plant in Tanzania’s south-
shore natural gas resources after years of delay. east Lindi region. The facility will eventually
The successful completion of talks was have two gas liquefaction trains with a produc-
announced by Tanzania’s Ministry of Energy tion capacity of 5mn tonnes per year (tpy) each.
in a Twitter post on March 6, Reuters reported. The Energy Ministry did not say exactly
In the post, Energy Minister January Makamba when it expected work on the LNG plant to
noted that the parties had wrapped up negotia- begin. Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp.
tions on the construction of an LNG plant and (TPDC), the national oil company (NOC), had
that experts were now working to draft the con- said last year that it hoped to see construction
tracts needed to support the project. start in 2023 and finish in 2028.
These contracts include a host government Tanzania is already a gas producer and has
agreement (HGA), as well as a combined con- put some of the volumes produced from off-
tract for the development of the offshore sites shore fields such as Songo Songo to use to run
known as Blocks 1, 2 and 4, which will supply thermal power plants (TPPs) and manufac-
natural gas for the onshore LNG plant, the min- turing facilities. It also aims to build a fertiliser
istry explained. plant that will use domestically extracted gas as
According to previous reports, Shell holds feedstock.
the licence for Block 1 and Block 4, which are As of June 2022, the government estimated
estimated to hold 16 trillion cubic feet (453bn the country’s total recoverable gas reserves at
cubic metres) of gas in recoverable reserves. 57.54 tcf (1.63 trillion cubic metres). Accord-
Equinor operates Block 2, in which ExxonMobil ingly, the development of the blocks that will
holds a stake and is estimated to hold more than feed the Tanzania LNG project will raise the
20 trillion cubic feet (566.4 bcm) of gas. reserve figure. ™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 10 09•March•2023