EFFORTS to make the use of cooking gas in Tanzania is gaining momentum after the sixth phase government signed contracts worth 97 tri/- with companies from Norway and the Netherlands to extract gas.
Likewise, in another step, the government in collaboration with the Zambian government has started ambitious strategies to start the construction of a gas pipeline from Tanzania to Zambia.
The Strategic Plan for the implementation of the National Energy Vision outlines various issues including the measures that the government is taking to enable 80 per cent of Tanzanians to use clean energy for cooking by 2033.
The government of the sixth phase is determined to see that the issue of environmental care is given priority in order to save our world from the ongoing destruction that is haunting this world at the moment and disrupting peace for the safety of living things.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan after finding out that only eight per cent of Tanzanians are using clean energy for cooking gave instructions to the Ministry of Energy that within 10 years 80 per cent of Tanzanians should be using clean energy for cooking.
At a time when the issue of environmental protection is cross-cutting, every country in the world should show readiness to deal with the damage where young nations are required to take care of the environment by preventing and planting trees in abundance while rich nations are required to reduce emissions of carbon.
The Tanzania Forest Services (TFS) Lake Zone Manager, Mr Bakari Mohammed says that Tanzania continues to lose many forests where 372,000 hectares are lost every year due to human activities while the situation in the world by the year 2020 was a loss of 42 per cent per year.
The manager says that the cutting of trees is high in this country but the effort to plant trees is low due to poverty which is facing people.
He says TFS wants the citizens around their reserves to prepare for planting trees in abundance in their environment when the rains begin to fall in the coming season which is expected to record high rainfall.
Recently, the Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority (PURA) said that the government has signed five agreements with investors to produce and process gas in the country.
These efforts have come after the discovery of gas in three blocks in this country and thus the government had to sit with the investors to agree to convert the gas into liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and sell it in the markets of Asia, Japan and Korea.
The Director General of PURA, Mr Charles Sangweni said this when he was speaking at the PURA pavilion in the 47th Dar Es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF) which is going on at Mwalimu Nyerere grounds in Kilwa road in Temeke District.
We call it profit sharing contracts where the investor will come to the country, he will find a block, he will start digging if he finds it, we will agree on how to share it, he said that the goal is to get oil but if the investor gets gas, we look at the conditions, if he fails, we give him a good bye hand, he leaves with his losses, said Mr Sangweni.
He said that the three blocks number one, two and four were found to have gas in the area of Indian Ocean in Lindi Region where a plant will be built for the extraction while block number three has small gas so there was no need to invest.
The executive of Pura said that discussions with investors Shell Company of the Netherlands and Equinor of Norway started last year in November and ended in May this year and now the implementation discussions are in the final stages.
The agreement reached is the signing of five agreements, one of which is between the countries, the government and the Tanzania Petroleum Development Company (TPDC) on the basis of investment, sharing and implementation of the project.
When building a plant on land, seven billion US dollars will enter the economy while economists note that the country’s economy will rise to eight per cent of the national income (GDP) from 5.2 per cent by 2023.
He also pointed out that 10,000 Tanzanians will get jobs during the construction and after the start of the project, 400 to 600 people will get permanent jobs while the agriculture, accommodation and transport sectors will benefit during that period and at other times.
Also, in the area surrounding the project, other industries will be built that will use the gas in the production and processing of the products produced there.
Another investment that encourages our nation’s mission to see that a large part of Tanzanians are now moving in large numbers from the use of wood energy for cooking and using gas has become evident in a short time after the decisions to start to build a gas pipeline from Tanzania to Zambia.
This was evident when Minister for Energy, Mr January Makamba, the Minister of Defense and National Service Mr Innocent Bashungwa, the Minister for Home Affairs Mr Hamad Massauni and on the Zambian side Minister for Defense Mr Amborose Lufuma, the Minister for Energy Mr Peter Kapala, the Minister for Home Affairs and State Security, Mr Jacob Mwiimbu met to set this work plan in Dar es Salaam.
Minister Mr Makamba said that the construction of the pipeline to transport gas between Tanzania and Zambia goes hand in hand with strengthening the protection of the pipeline that was transporting crude oil from Tanzania to Zambia (TAZAMA), built in the 1960s, started to be punctured due to the transportation of clean oil at present.
For his part, the Minister of Defense of Zambia, Mr Amborose Lufuma, said that the agreement includes joint patrols in areas where the pipeline passes by installing modern cameras, including drones, to strengthen security.
These efforts that our government is currently taking are for the benefit of our country now and in the future, so together let’s achieve this unique and revolutionary mission to make sure that we create a green planet for the safety of all of us.
