Tanzania says the cost of developing its liquefied natural gas (LNG) project is $42 billion after the recent technical analysis, the East African reported.
The country isn planning to sign the host government agreement next month and embark on the front-end engineering design of what will become the largest energy project in eastern and southern Africa.
Initially, the project located offshore, had been estimated to cost about $30 billion, but some recent industry reports have quoted it at $40 billion.
“There is a lot of analysis ongoing. The recent technical analysis shows that offshore drilling and piping will push the project to $42 billion,” Tanzania’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy Felchesmi Jossen Mramba, told The EastAfrican.
He was speaking in Kampala, on the side-lines of the 10th East African Petroleum Conference and Exhibition where Tanzania pitched a further 26 exploration areas both onshore and offshore, which will be up for grabs by year-end, in the country’s first licensing round since 2013, to find more hydrocarbons.
Tanzania targets 2028 for the final investment decision that will make it the region’s LNG giant, when it develops its 57.54 trillion cubic feet of gas so far discovered, with international oil companies Shell Plc and Norway’s Equinor ASA as the lead partners and the participating interest from the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp.
