During a recent visit to the British Gas headquarters in the UK, Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete met with the Chief Executive Officer, Sir Frank Chapman, who explained that the group has so far achieved a 100 per cent success rate in this virgin Tanzania exploration basin and that it was extremely encouraging.
The CEO added that much work remains to be done to explore the further potential of the acreage and study development and export schemes and that BG look forward to working with the government as the country makes transition to a new major natural gas producer and exporter.
BG Group is a world leader in natural gas, active in more than 25 countries; its subsidiary, British Gas International (BGI), first entered the Tanzania market last year, buying 60 percent of the shares of Ophir Tanzania Limited and thereby acquiring their contract between the government of Tanzania and the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) for exploration of gas in the Indian Ocean.
The group announced earlier this year that it intends to invest USD 500 million in Tanzania gas exploration this year alone, with the intention of investing between USD 10 billion and USD 20 billion in the second half of this decade.
Accordingly the government of Tanzania is preparing the country’s economy for a significant increase in the country’s foreign investment inflow following the recent discoveries of natural offshore Tanzania gas deposits.
According to a number of experts, and as reported by East African Business Week, within the next five years Tanzania is expected to confirm the presence of nearly 60 trillion cubic feet of natural gas thereby opening the country up to massive amounts of investment dollars.
