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In 2004 the first commercial production of natural gas commenced in Tanzania.
Since then discoveries of large quantities of natural gas has been witnessed.
The development has likewise brought a lot of challenges in managing these
resources. To overcome these challenges, the government has formulated the
natural gas policy to provide a comprehensive framework for guiding development
of the industry to ensure optimal benefit to the nation and Tanzanians at large.
The policy is now out as a draft stage. This is a very important policy for
Tanzania because at the moment almost 50% of our power (UMEME) comes from
natural gas, more than 30 industries use this gas as a source of power for
production hence substitution to TANESCO hydropower and there are many more
plans on how to use these huge discovered resources in our country in future.
These include: use of natural gas for running cars, domestic cooking to replace
environmental unfriendly sources such as mkaa and Kuni (charcoal and firewood),
industrial use etc.
The draft policy document has been distributed in various media for us to
comment and provide suggestions to our government. As forum members lets discuss
and advise our government appropriately. Let us do it and not wait for
complaining in future as the policy is very vital for the current and future
generations. As the minister responsible for the natural gas put it “natural gas
resources belongs to the people of Tanzania and must be managed in a way that
benefit the entire Tanzanian society”.
In discussing this draft policy the following issues could guide us:
I. How does the draft policy meet the current and future needs of the nation?
II. One key area in the policy is the regulation aspect. How should the sector
be regulated (section 5.1.3)
III. What capacity areas need to be worked on, and therefore be included in the
policy statements?
IV. What else need to be included in this policy?
To download the draft natural policy click the following link: www.tzonline.org/TheTanzaniaNaturalGasPolicDraft.pdf
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