Tanzania: Isles, Mainland Institutions Sign Deals to Cooperate on Oil, Gas

[ACCI-CAVIE] SIX institutions dealing with development of oil and natural gas in both mainland and Zanzibar have signed agreements to strengthen collaboration.

The institutions in the Mainland are Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority (PURA), Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (EWURA), and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC).

Whereas in the Isles, the institutions are Zanzibar Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority (ZPRA), Zanzibar Utilities Regulatory Authority (ZURA) and Zanzibar Petroleum Development Company (ZPDC).

“This is a milestone in our collaboration to the development of our country,” said Engineer Felchesmi Mramba, Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Energy after the signing ceremony held at Hotel Verde, Mtoni area.

He said that in the Mainland, research and exploration on oil and gas were ongoing, good results have been recorded and that so far more than 57 trillion cubic feet of natural gas have been discovered.

Mr Mramba said there were still indications of discovering oil and gas in various areas in the Mainland where the exploration started more than six years ago.

“Therefore we have attained some experience in research and management. Collaboration with Zanzibar will enable us to move forward. We have decided to strengthen partnership by signing MoU so that we move forward smoothly. We can now share knowledge, experiences, statistics and other areas that will enable our institutions to move faster,” he said.

He commended the Zanzibar and Mainland institutions’ partnership, saying it would enable country to achieve its goals in research and developing oil and gas resources so that the outcome is known in the shortest possible time.

Urban District Commissioner (DC), Mr Rashid Simai Msaraka said that the new cooperation would strengthen the Union.

Mr Mgereza Miraj, the Permanent Secretary in the Isles Ministry of Water, Energy and Minerals said “Although we had cooperation in the past, we had no written agreement. Our future collaboration is backed by this agreement in different areas.

By AA