Govt to Hold Meeting With Petroleum Investors

THE government plans to hold a roundtable dialogue with potential petroleum investors in the country to ensure a win-win situation for parties.

The dialogue, set to convene after finalising the ongoing review of Production Sharing Agreements

(PSAs) between the government and foreign investors focuses on allowing the country to benefit from abundant petroleum resources the country is endowed with.

The vital plan was unveiled by a senior geologist from Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority (PURA), Mr Simon Nkenyeli, during an exclusive interview with the 'Daily News' on the sidelines of the career enhancement conference 2019/20 held in capital city recently under the theme of 'The Role of Energy Sector in Tanzania Industrialisation Prosperity and Youth Flexibility towards Employment Opportunities'.

"The focus of the ongoing exercise is to stabilise Tanzania's energy sector by ensuring the prestigious resource is extracted for the benefit of Tanzanians," he noted.

However, he explained that PSAs review surfaced after the enactment of the National Wealth and Resources (Permanent Sovereignty) Act, 2017 and the National Wealth and Resources Contracts (Review and Re-negotiation of Unconscious Terms) Act of 2017.

A PSA is a contract between one or more investors and the government in which rights to prospection, exploration and extraction of mineral resources from a specific area over a specified period of time are determined.

According to standard terms, the government hires an investor as a contractor for the extraction of mineral resources, but the government still retains ownership of the resources.

"Since the enactment of the two regulations, most petroleum investors have been raising several concerns, complaining that the regulations are not friendly to their businesses," he said.

He added that the selected team to review PSAs after finalising the exercise would table their findings and inputs to allow the government to negotiate with relevant investors to mull over how to improve the investment environment," he unveiled.

The two laws are among the three assented to by President John Magufuli in July 2017 with a view to increasing government control over mining, oil and gas operations in Tanzania.

In his opening remarks, the guest of honour, Deputy Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office (Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and the Disables) Anthony Mavunde said the government would continue investing highly in science and technology.

He said petroleum was crucial to enable the government to industrialise the country and called on young engineers to utilise their knowledge to advance the performance of the sector.

The 3rd edition of the annual symposium organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Students Chapter involved the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) and University of Dodoma (Udom) under auspicious of Pan Africa Energy -Tanzania (PAET) and focused on deliberations on key development issues and on finding solutions to problems facing graduates in petroleum engineering.