Tanzania Natural Gas Power Demand To Increase in 2019

Orca Exploration Group (Orca), the company operating a natural gas processing facility on Songo Songo Island, off the coast of southern Tanzania, has published its 2018 Annual Report.

In the documents, CEO Nigel Friends explains that 2018 was a year of positive net cash flow for the company, and believes Orca is well positioned to grow over the coming years through our stated strategy of maximizing the potential of integrated gas projects in Tanzania.

His estimates are based on the fact that “Over the last year, 160 MWs of new gas-fired generation capacity was commissioned and there was an increase in industrial demand when Dangote Cement started to consume higher volumes of gas at their new facility in the south of Tanzania. This combined with the need to balance the network has led to Orca’s Additional Gas sales increasing to an average of 62 MMcfd for the first two months of 2019, compared to an average of 40 MMcfd in 2018. It is expected that an additional 180 MW of gas-fired generation capacity will be commissioned in stages over the next six to eighteen months increasing gas demand by 35 MMcfd at maximum load,” Friends commented.

Tanzania Gas

Tanzania has been exploring for natural gas for more than 50 years. The first natural gas discovery in Tanzania was made in 1974 on the Songo Songo Island (Lindi Region) followed by a second discovery at the Mnazi Bay (Mtwara Region) in 1982.

Songo Songo was Tanzania’s first natural gas development. The plant supplies natural gas to a 25 km 12″ offshore pipeline and a 207 km 16″ onshore pipeline and is used by the power sector and industrial markets in the Dar es Salaam area.

Tanzania’s estimated natural gas reserves currently (2016) stand at 57 trillion cubic feet (TCF). Gas-fired electricity represents about 45% of the country’s total installed power capacity.