Tanzania has discovered an estimated 223 billion cubic feet of natural gas in the Mnazi Bay area in the south of the country, Energy Minister Juma Homera announced on Tuesday. The reserves were found at the Kasa-1X ST2 well, explored jointly by the state owned Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation and French company Maurel and Prom. The find is Tanzania first gas discovery in more than 10 years.
Homera said the partnership had drilled three wells, MB-5, MS-2 and Kasa-1X ST2, that would help boost the country gas supply, and that the corporation was already in talks with four investors planning small scale liquefied natural gas projects. Maurel and Prom has said first gas production could start as early as next month, and the minister put expected output at about 30 million cubic feet a day for at least 10 years, while the company has pointed to gross potential near 50 million cubic feet a day. The two figures are different estimates from the two partners and are carried as such.
Before the announcement, Tanzania discovered reserves stood at about 57.5 trillion standard cubic feet, according to the energy regulator, so the new find adds less than half of one percent to the national total. Its value is location and timing, not size: Mnazi Bay already produces, most of its gas goes to power plants in Mtwara and Dar es Salaam, and a discovery that can enter an existing system in weeks is worth more to domestic supply than a larger find that needs a new export plant.