Page 13 - DMEA Week 21 2020

DMEA POLICY DMEA
EWURA seeks to promote local content in Tanzanian projects
TANZANIA
Tanzanian firms could help build up the domestic fuel retail sector.
TANZANIA’S Energy and Water Utilities Reg- ulatory Authority (EWURA) has indicated that it wants to see more local companies involved in the development of the country’s oil and gas resources.
Tobias Rwelamila, EWURA’s manager for natural gas distribution, said last week that his agency had not reached its target for promoting Tanzanian participation in development pro- jects. As of December 2019, he noted, EWURA had only added 428 domestic firms to its register of service providers authorised to provide oil and gas-related services, far short of its goal of more than 1,000.
According to the Tanzanian Daily News, the number has risen since the beginning of the year and had reached 457 as of March 2020. This rep- resents a 6.8% rise on the end-2019 figure but is still well below the target.
Rwelamila said, though, that his agency remained optimistic and was ready to work with local companies of all sizes. “EWURA has imposed no deadline restrictions for local com- panies interested to register as service providers,” he said. “There [are] no capital analysis demands, quality-of-service specifications or [require- ments related to] the lifespan of the company.”
The agency has also worked to streamline
the process of application for inclusion in the register of authorised contractors, he said. Inter- ested companies can fill out and submit local content service provider (LSSP) forms online, he explained.
Expanding local participation in oil and gas projects will benefit the country by channelling foreign investment funds directly into the Tan- zanian economy, Rwelamila commented. It will also help foreign investors, since Tanzanian ser- vice companies will charge less than their foreign counterparts, he said. “An increase in local con- tent service providers reduces production costs and [will] subsequently add [to] government revenues and employment,” he said, according to the Tanzanian Daily News.
The newspaper also quoted Hussein Boffu, a Tanzanian petroleum consultant, as saying that there were many ways for local companies to benefit from foreign investment in the coun- try’s oil and gas sector. “There [are] opportu- nities in the supportive services, transport, shipping, logistics, accommodation, cleaning and food services [sectors] ... Most explora- tion activities need these services, and you can make huge [amounts of] cash when cleaning and providing food service to oil companies,” Boffu said. ™
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