THE government is so far on the right track in its strategies of drilling and extraction of gas in various areas in the Southern regions, Norwegian experts have said.
Speaking during an exclusive interview
with the ‘Daily News’, they said so far the government through its
bodies has managed to take all required measures for drilling and
extraction of gas.
Mr Gudmund Rydning, a principal engineer
with Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority said the Tanzania government
is making good progress and that the situation will improve as years
pass by.
“Gas extraction is a process, it takes
years to build the capacity and expertise, but generally, Tanzania is
doing a great job,” he noted. He added that the government of Tanzania
has so far managed to take pre-cautions and measures to avoid possible
environmental risks. Last month, the Tanzania Petroleum Development
Corporation (TPDC) said that the body believes in zero fatality in both
gas and oil extraction.
“TPDC is very serious on health, safet
y and environment. We cannot allow any
company or any process to take place without considering such key
issues. They are everything to us,” said a TPDC official. TPDC makes
sure all exploration companies and its officials adhere to the
Environment Management Act, 2004. TPDC conducts its activities by taking
into account the Environment Management Act, 2004.
However, yesterday, the Norwegian expert
said apart from efforts demonstrated by the government of Tanzania in
oil and gas sector, it still needs to make some improvements to some
areas such as increase number of experts, build capacity on issues
related to gas and oil as well as ensure pre-cautions measures are
considered in all extraction steps. “Tanzania has some capacity already,
but it needs more, as I have said earlier, it is a long process, it
takes long to develop the sector,” he said.
According to Mr Rydning, Norway
encountered the same challenges when it started drilling and extraction
of oil and gas about 50 years ago. He said at the moment there are more
than 200,000 people working in oil and gas sector in Norway.
The Norwegian Environmental Agency
Senior Advisor (International Collaboration), Mr Frank Eklo said
operating companies in oil and gas sector are required to have enough
capacity to respond to incidents that could lead to environmental
hazards.
He said Norway has a national system,
which is responsible to manage such kind of problems. He said Norwegian
government has been engaged in short courses training programme with
Tanzania government as one of strategies to build capacity in the oil
and gas sector.
The principle Engineer (Field
development) with Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, Ms Aslaug Janssen
said Norway is assisting to build general capacity in oil and gas sector
in Tanzania.
“We are not involved in any specific
project development, we are only assisting in building general capacity
in the sector,” she said. She added that Tanzania has a great
opportunity to learn not only from Western countries but also to other
successful African countries.
She said gas is a largest export
business in Norway followed by fisheries sector. Recently, the Minister
for Energy and Minerals, Professor Sospeter Muhongo, revealed that the
government will invest at least 30 billion USD (over 60 trillion/-) for
the construction of a gas processing plant in Lindi Region.
In February, 25, this year, Tanzania
discovered an additional 2.17 trillion cubic feet of possible natural
gas deposits, raising the country’s total estimated recoverable natural
gas reserves to more than 57 tcf.
Since the discovery of natural gas in
Tanzania, the economy has witnessed tremendous growth, with 70 per cent
of power generation coming from gas, which is currently serving more
than 30 industries in Dar es Salaam
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