Mtwara
region is one of Tanzania's 30 administrative regions. The regional capital is
the municipality of Mtwara. According to the 2012 national census
the region had a population of 1,270,854, which was lower than the pre-census
projection of 1, 374, 767.It was also the fourteenth most densely populated
region with 76 people per square kilometer.
Development of the
Mtwara Region has been constrained by the lack of highway and energy
infrastructures. The Dar es Salaam-Kibiti-Lindi-Mtwara road has been improved
by the completion of the Mkapa Bridge over the Rufiji River.
Mnazi Bay gas promises to provide reliable and
adequate electricity for powering industrial and commercial activities in the region.
To address the benefits, the Mtwara gas results into
Creating employment opportunity to 10,000
Tanzanian in 2025, this is the most benefit, but also to direct consumer of gas
in household
Improvements of
infrastructures such new road from Mtwara harbor, Railways, Airports and
markets base1
The project brought a
lot of challenges to surrounding communities and environmental in general. Some
challenges of Mtwara Gas in relation to the economic benefit of the Nation and social
welfare of the people are,
·
The lack of developed domestic market as
the condition to establish sustainable national economy based on natural
resource exploitation
·
The lack of requisite knowledge on
successful exploitation of Natural resources and manage the flow of their
benefits
·
The lack of institutional development
this pertains to the capability of institutions to organize themselves in
structures, working procedures and human resources to develop competency over
time to manage, regulate and underpin the socioeconomic transformation.
·
Organizations responsible for regulating
the Oil and Gas Industry, for Enforcement of contracts and property rights, for
regulating banks and the financial Services sector, for managing and/or
controlling fiscal and monetary resources and Policies, for regulating capital
markets, and for protecting the environment, all need to develop institutional
capacities commensurate with the challenges of performing their functions and
delivering services efficiently to match the demands which will be imposed by
the new and dominant gas economy.
·
The urgent requirement to build adequate
physical economic services infrastructure to facilitate investments and reduce
costs of doing business.
·
On May 2013 a gas riot happened where
the residents were claiming there benefit on that project after they have
expelled from their homes. One pregnant woman was killed and many
others died while others flew their homes
The collapse of the
Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme in the early 1950s, dealt an economic blow to
Tanzania’s southern region of Mtwara, but the discovery of off-shore natural
gas has revived fortunes. Tanzania made significant discoveries of natural gas
in 1974 at Songosongo in Lindi region. In the 1980s more finds were made at
Mnazi Bay in Mtwara Region.
Tanzania’s total
natural gas resource estimates now stand at about 50.5 trillion cubic feet
(tcf), a figure that could double as new discoveries are made.
Francis Lupokela, the
Public Relations Officer of Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC)
said 88% of Tanzania has gas, adding that more exploration activities are
ongoing in Tanga, Morogoro and Kilimanjaro, Mtwara and Lindi. While these
discoveries were made three decades ago infrastructural constraints, lack of
capital for investment and political will have led to minimal utilization of
the hydrocarbons.
Tanzania is now putting
more attention to gas to reinforce their foreign exchange earnings. This is a
decimal shift from mining, agriculture, tourism and manufacturing which support
other economic activities.
A predominantly rural
region situated about 450 kilometers south of the Dar es Salaam; Mtwara is fast
becoming an economic base for Tanzania with huge deposits of gas awaiting
commercial production and the gas to be supplied countrywide.
Exploration companies
BG Group, Exxon Mobil, Statoil, Petrobras and others have littered the coastal
region with huge foreign direct investment in excess of $300 million to fast
track gas production.
Until 2011, gas
deposits in Mtwara were estimated to be between 4 to 5tcf. In 2012, sizable
discoveries made by BG Group, Statoil and Wentworth Resources at Mnazi Bay
added to these reserves.
A natural gas
processing plant is being built at Madimba in Mtwara by China Petroleum
Engineers the project contractors, China Chemical Engineering Secondary Construction
Corporation and Worley Parson the project management consultant.
The processing plant
will feed the main $1.22 billion 532-km Tanzania Natural Gas Pipeline that,
together with gas from Songosongo through another processing facility at
Samanga, will be transported to Dar es Salaam for further processing, storage
and export.
The daily cost of a
floating rig (drilling ship) used to drill in the deep sea is $1 million; one
well takes about three months to be completed. The population in Mtwara is
expected to grow higher by 2025 due to exploration of natural gas and
improvement of infrastructures and creating employment opportunity to 10,000
Tanzanian this is the most benefit, but also to direct consumer of gas in
household
