A LEAKED contract between Norway's Statoil and the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) is raising questions about whether Tanzania will gain the full benefits of its sizeable gas deposits that have been discovered since 2010 deep in the Indian Ocean. Estimates put the country's reserves at little more than 50 trillion cubic feet of gas, a figure the government thinks may double as additional exploration wells are drilled, making them potentially a considerable potential source of revenue.
Arguments over how this is shared between the country and oil firms has already spilled over into public debate. In early September Tanzania's revenue authority said it would review and renegotiate mining and gas agreements. A few days later it quickly withdrew that proposal amid concerns it might hamper investment and exploration.
The bulk of the Tanzanian gas industry is still in it's exploration phase, and final investment decisions on production are unlikely to be made until 2015 or 2016. But according to an IMF report released in April, once infrastructure is in place and production is...Continue reading
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