- Tanzania’s Energy Minister Hon. January Makamba invites participants to TEC
- Patrons to review opportunities in Tanzania’s $30bn LNG investment
- Despite huge natural gas deposits, majority of Tanzania relies on firewood, charcoal
With an abundance of a diverse collection of natural energy resources, Tanzania is now poised to make the most of this enormous wealth that largely remains untapped. To this end, Tanzania is this August hosting its fourth edition of the Tanzania Energy Congress (TEC).
The highly anticipated executive summit will be hosted in the country’s commercial port city of Dar es Salaam 3 – 4 August 2022. Two day conference is held under the auspicious leadership of the Minister for Energy of the United Republic of Tanzania, Hon. January Makamba and will highlight the Ministry of Energy’s plans and priorities for both the energy and hydrocarbons sector in Tanzania.
The conference is thus, the opportune opportunity for investors to learn of government plans and to help shape what the future of the energy sector will look like in Tanzania. The summit will give investors, both local and foreign, opportunity to learn what are the country’s priorities in the sector’s development, available or sought after funding options, rules and regulations and also serves as the main platform to raise queries and/or concerns about investment in the sector.
In his comments, Mr. Abdulsamad Abdulrahim who is the director of the event organizers, Ocean Business Partners Tanzania, said the conference could not come at a more critical time for Tanzanians.
“We have been waiting patiently on the side-lines to establish and develop a national energy industry, for the local economy, for local capacity building, and for the benefit of Tanzania,” he said.
He was speaking to press in the wake of a preliminary meeting that took place at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference (ADIPEC). It is at this junction that Ocean Business Partners Tanzania and their strategic Tanzanian partners DMG Events, reaffirmed their commitment to host the Tanzania Energy Congress.
Following the event set up, Tanzania’s Minister for Energy, Hon. January Makamba expressed his enthusiasm over the event saying, “…the congress will act as a forum for both national and international business leaders, investors, and new contractors to network and exchange ideas, with the ultimate aim of developing and identifying new opportunities which will exist within the energy sector of Tanzania.”
“I would like to actively encourage all companies involved in the energy sectors of Tanzania or those seeking opportunities within it, to attend and participate in this crucial industry event and I look forward to personally welcoming you to Dar es Salaam,” the Minister welcomed all patrons.
TEC: New opportunities as Tanzania inks US$30bn gas deal
It should be noted that, when it comes to extracting, processing and distributing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), the Tanzanian government has already inked deals with world energy giants Shell and Equinor for a Host Government Agreement (HGA) that is valued at an estimated US$30bn.
This is another aspect to look forward to at the conference, what are the opportunities enshrined in such a major energy deal. As the organizers put it, “…no other get together will bring more stakeholders in one venue to discuss the pros and cones of this deal than the Tanzania Energy Congress (TEC).”
Among other key topics, the summit will discuss raising capital and funding for local SMEs in the oil and gas sector of the country. This again makes the conference a platform to discuss local content in the energy sector.
Under this topic, patrons at the summit will review how Tanzania’s SMEs will be more competitive in the provision of complimentary services to the energy sector.
TEC will also serve as a platform for top government officials and private sector executives to deliberate contracts in the energy sector. This will also serve as a chance to review Tanzania’s rules on arbitration of contractual disputes in the event that parties to an agreement are in discrepancy.
Tanzania hosts major energy sector conference as environment improves
Tanzania natural gas specs
Tanzania’s energy sector is now moving towards further diversification, but a key focus area remains the LNG subsector. At the moment, it is estimated that Tanzania boasts over 45 billion m3 of natural gas reserves.
To bring it to perspective, this massive reserve is not only enough to meet Tanzania’s own domestic needs, but sufficient to also make the country the next natural gas hub in Africa.
The known natural gas deposits in Tanzania so far are found at the Songo Songo Island deposits in Lindi Region. Others are in Mnazi bay in Mtwara Region and Mkuranga in Coast Region.
The reserves at Songo Songo are the largest and are estimated to exceed 30 billion m³. To tap these reserves, a 232 km gas pipeline has been constructed from the Songo Songo Island all the way to Dar es Salaam supplying natural gas for power generation and other industrial thermal processes.
There are nine thermal power plants in Tanzania converting natural gas to electricity. These have a combined total annual production of approximately 650 MW.
Tanzania’s Energy Sector Snippet
Despite having such vast reserves of clean renewable energy options, according to reports from the Tanzania Rural Energy Agency (REA), Tanzania’s energy demand is unfortunately met by use of biomass.
Even though 78.4% of Tanzanians have access to the national electricity grid electricity, most of the rural communities are still heavily reliant on charcoal and firewood as their main source of energy.
“Electricity makes up only 0.6% of total energy consumption. As a total, biomass is 90% of the total primary energy consumption in Tanzania. Unfortunately, this leads to the deforestation of 100,000 h per year,” warns REA.
According to the authority, 63.5% of the households in Mainland Tanzania use firewood as the main source of energy for cooking, and another 26.2% use followed by charcoal while a mere 5.1% use liquified petroleum gas.
