BY: Neil Ford
Tanzania’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals announced in March an agreement with Anglo-Dutch major Shell and Norway’s Equinor to develop a long-awaited LNG project in the south of the country.
The ministry said negotiations had reached a successful conclusion and that a Host Government Agreement is now being drafted, alongside a production sharing contract covering the offshore acreage involved.
There is a long way to go before the project is actually developed, but it has never looked more likely to be built.
A final investment decision (FID) is expected in 2025 with the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase preceding FID.
Construction time is likely to be five to six years, suggesting the large-scale project could come on-stream around 2030.
Plentiful feedstock Blocks 1, 2 and 4 in the Mafia Deep Basin off the southeast coast of the country will provide feedstock for the plant. Equinor operates Block 2 with a 65% stake, alongside partner ExxonMobil, which holds the remaining 35% equity. Equinor estimates reserves on the block…