Page 8 - AfrOil Week 48 2019

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil
Tanzanian gov’t to discuss PSA concerns with potential investors
TANZANIA
TANZANIA’S government intends to convene a roundtable meeting to address potential inves- tors’ concerns about the legal regime covering production-sharing agreements (PSAs) for crude oil and natural gas fields.
Simon Nkenyeli, a senior geologist for the East African state’s Petroleum Upstream Regu- latory Authority (PURA), unveiled the govern- ment’s plans last week, saying that the meeting would be held once Dar es Salaam had wrapped up its ongoing review of the PSA legal regime. Once the review team reaches this stage, he said, its members will “table their findings and inputs to allow the government to negotiate with rele- vant investors to mull over how to improve the investment environment.
Nkenyeli did not say exactly when Tanza- nian authorities might complete this review, but he did stress that the process was designed to protect the country’s ability to reap benefits from its own natural resources. “The focus of the ongoing exercise is to stabilise Tanzania’s energy sector by ensuring [that] the prestigious resource is extracted for the benefit of Tanza- nians,” he told the Daily News on the sidelines of a conference in Dar es Salaam on the energy sector’s role in job creation and economic development.
He further noted that Tanzanian authori- ties had launched the review of the PSA legal regime after the adoption of new laws in 2017. He explained that he was referring to the National Wealth and Resources (Permanent Sovereignty) Act and the National Wealth and Resources Contracts (Review and Re-negotia- tion of Unconscious Terms) Act, which Presi- dent John Magufuli signed in July of that year.
“Since the enactment of the two regulations, most petroleum investors have been raising several concerns, complaining that the regu- lations are not friendly to their businesses,” he remarked. He did not describe these complaints in detail, but the Daily News explained that the laws passed in July 2017 were designed to give the government more control over mining, oil and gas operations in Tanzania ™
Oil and gas in Tanzania and other East African states (Image: Jacka Resources)
Sudan, South Sudan extend oil agreement
SUDAN/SOUTH SUDAN
THE governments of Sudan and South Sudan have extended the term of a bilateral agreement on co-operation in the oil and gas sector.
The current accord between the parties was due to expire on November 30, 2019. However, Mayen Wol Jong, South Sudan’s undersecretary of petroleum, and his Sudanese counterpart, Hamid Suleiman Hamid, agreed during a meet- ing in Khartoum last week to push the deadline back to March 2022.
As a result, Hamid told the Sudanese press, South Sudan will continue to be able to export its crude oil via pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. The two sides have also reached agreement
on the operation of the Toma and Saluth oil- fields and will seek to restart oil production at Thar Jath, an oilfield in the Unity region, he said. Additionally, they will move forward with tech- nical work at the second stage of the 5A site, he stated.
Jong, for his part, said that Juba had asked Khartoum for help with the technical proce- dures that must be completed in order to bring Thar Jath back on stream.
He did not say when the field might resume production, but he noted that the equipment needed to execute the project was still on the
docks in Port Sudan. 
P8
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 48 04•December•2019