THE government should finalise negotiations with investors in the proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant and compensate people who will be evicted from the project site in Lindi Region, the Parliamentary Budget Committee has said.
The Committee Chairperson Hawa Ghasia (Mtwara Rural—CCM) said in the National Assembly
here yesterday that while the project is taking too long to begin, the committee found out that the government was yet to compensate villagers who will be shifted from the project site.
“The government should finalise negotiations with the investors and compensate people who will be shifted for the project to start immediately,” she said while presenting the committee’s contribution to the 2018/19 budget proposals.
Tanzania boasts of estimated recoverable reserves of over 57 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas. A team of international investors involving BG Group, which was acquired by Royal Dutch Shell in 2016, alongside Statoil, Exxon Mobil and Ophir Energy, plan to build a 30 billion US dollar (about 70tri/-) onshore LNG export terminal in Lindi region, in partnership with the state-run Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC).
The central bank believes two percentage points will be added to annual economic growth by simply starting works on the huge plant that will draw in billions of dollars of investment.
The government announced in 2016 to have finalised a land acquisition agreement for the site of the envisaged LNG plant and was working to compensate and resettle villagers to proceed with the long-delayed project.
“After securing the title deed, the law requires the owner to pay compensation to the relevant parties based on a valuation done by the chief government valuer,” TPDC said in a statement.
TPDC now owns the title deed for some 2,071.705 hectares that have been set aside for construction of the planned two-train LNG terminal at Likong’o village in southern Tanzania, close to the large offshore gas finds.
In April, the government invited bidders for consultancy services to help in concluding negotiations with the group of international oil firms on a deal for the construction of the proposed LNG plant.
“The objective of the assignment includes building capacity and facilitating the government negotiation team (GNT) as well as devising the best approach to undertake negotiations of the host government agreement,” TPDC said in the tender announcement. The committee also called on the government to fast-track the procedures to publish in the government gazette investment incentives agreed with the investors of the Liganga Iron Ore and Mchuchuma Coal projects to enable him begin construction of the iron ore plant as soon as possible. The much-awaited mining of iron ore and coal at Liganga and Mchuchuma, respectively has been delayed as the government was currently settling issues with investors regarding investment incentives and power tariffs. The negotiations on the two issues have pushed back the planned date for commencement of the mining activities. The committee also advised the government to fast track compensation to people who will be relocated to pave way for the Liganga Iron Ore and Mchuchuma Coal projects. The Mchuchuma project includes the construction of a 600MW coal-fired power station, with 250MW used by the iron plant and the remaining 350MW supplied to the national grid. The two projects are jointly implemented by the National Development Corporation (NDC) and a Chinese company, Sichuan Hongda Group (SHG) Limited, popularly known as Tanzania China International Mineral Resources Limited. Iron production will make Tanzania the third largest African producer of iron ore and generate 32,000 jobs, the Minister for Trade and Industry, Charles Mwijage was quoted by media as saying in 2016. Iron ore reserves in Tanzania are located mainly in Liganga, Uluguru Mountains, Mbabala near Lake Tanganyika, Karema, Manyoro Gondite and Itewe. The Liganga iron ore mine holds the biggest iron resources in Tanzania with proven reserves of 126mt. Coal reserves in Tanzania are estimated at 1.9 billion tones, 25 per cent of which is proven and currently exploited in small scale at Kiwira Coal Mine in Mbeya Region and Tancoal Energy Limited Mine at Ngaka in Ruvuma Region.
No comments :
Post a Comment