Diplomatist Special Report - Tanzania Tanzania 2018 | Page 20

Q
“Indian companies can
now participate in energy
projects in Tanzania”
In a world grappling with climate change, renewable source of energy has become
the key to fi ghting this issue of global concern. In an interview with Diplomatist,
Medard Matogolo Kalemani, Energy Minister, Tanzania, elaborates on harnessing
the renewable energy potential in the country along with its aim of becoming an
energy exporter in the near future. The Hon. Minister was interviewed in New Delhi,
on the sidelines of the International Solar Alliance Summit held on 11 March 2018.
By MANISHIKA MIGLANI
How is Tanzania building up its fastest growing
sector of natural gas as a way to strengthen its economic
position?
There are a lot of investment opportunities in Tanzania
in the fi eld of Natural Gas – a whopping 57.5 trillion cubic
feet of gas is available in the country with further exploration
underway. As much as 50 percent of the national grid in the
country is powered by this resource. The rest is taken care of
by hydropower and other kinds of renewable energy. Tanzania
has both onshore and offshore deposits of natural gas with the
Southern and Coastal parts of Tanzania having the potential
for further discoveries.
We have a Natural Gas Utilisation Master Plan which sets
specifi c targets for increasing industrialisation in the country
through the use of natural gas. Under the plan, we have set
the following objectives which are expected to fetch results
by 2025:
a) Connect more industries and factories: Presently,
there are 37 factories in the country which are supplied with
natural gas. There are two upcoming major petrochemical
20 •TANZANIA
factories that have been covered under this objective. The
factories will be set up with European collaboration.
b) Increase the supply in domestic households:
Presently, more than 70 households are connected by natural
gas in Tanzania and we plan to increase this to 30,000
households by 2025. By doing this, we want to reduce
the dependence on biomass fuel (charcoal & fi rewood) in
domestic consumption, especially in the Tanzanian city of
Dar es Salaam.
Also, the Government of Tanzania, in collaboration with
the International Oil Companies (IOC), has planned to explore
and extract natural gas under a win-win arrangement. More
natural gas is required for domestic consumption apart from
its extensive use in power generation, fertilizer and other
industries. Subsequently, we may be able to export Natural
Gas and Liquefi ed Natural Gas (LNG) to Asian and other
neighbouring countries.
There is also a huge potential for capturing Solar, Wind
and Geothermal Energy in Tanzania along with extracting
biogas from the agricultural remains. However, we need