Tanzania Wants LNG Terminals to be Onshore

Tanzania wants to build future LNG terminals onshore to build the domestic economy.

"No LNG plant will be built offshore. We have rejected those proposals," Sospeter Muhongo, Tanzania's energy and minerals minister, told new agency Reuters on Friday in an interview.

The East Africa nation is estimated to hold huge amounts of natural gas and wants to export the fuel to benefit its struggling economy. However, according to Reuters the countryfaces issues such as finalising a natural gas policy and how much gas to export and how much to keep for domestic usage.

Muhongo said Statoil and BG Group were expected to submit proposals for a plant soon, the news agency reported.

"The gas policy will be taken for cabinet approval soon," Muhongo told Reuters. Once that is done, a bill will be put to parliament.

The minister declined to put forward a timeframe for the first LNG exports out of Tanzania, East Africa's second-biggest economy.

Given their different political and regulatory environments, energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie expects Mozambique to export its first LNG cargo by 2019, while Tanzania will have to wait until 2021, Reuters said.

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