The Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) has contributed to the Oil and Gas Fund amounting to Sh 295.55 billion for the period of 2016/2017 until May 2022.

The TPDC officer of the Oil and Gas Business Department, Engineer Eva Swillah said this on December 14, 2022 in Morogoro during the presentation of natural gas, projects and opportunities in the middle and lower petroleum stream.

The organization organized a seminar for journalists in the Morogoro region aimed at building their ability to write and provide accurate information about the oil and natural gas sector.

Engineer Swillah has said that despite contributing to the Fund, TPDC has given dividends to the government totaling Shs 9.34 billion for the year 2018/2019- 2021/22.

He said that the contribution of natural gas to the economy is great as the money saved by using natural gas instead of alternative energy from July, 2004 to May, 2022 amounts to approximately Sh 41.13 trillion.

"The contribution includes increasing foreign investment in the country, local experts in the oil and natural gas sector" said Engineer Swillah

And Gastony Canuty has said that TPDC continues with activities of exploration, production, processing, distribution of natural gas, storage and trading of oil to ensure the presence of sufficient energy in the country.

Canuty, who is an officer from the Upstream Department, has said that so far the amount of natural gas discovered is 57.54 trillion cubic feet, of which 10.41 trillion are included on land and 47.13 trillion in the sea.

He said part of that amount is used in various projects including generating electricity where more than 70 percent of the electricity produced in the national grid comes from natural gas and runs industrial plants.

"For dry land, we have discovered the area of ​​Songo Songo, Mnazi Bay, Mkuranga, Ruvuma area of ​​Ntorya and Ruvu, and the natural gas used is that of Songo Songo and Mnazi Bay" said Canuty

Canuty said that currently there are 11 working production and sharing contracts, five are for onshore exploration, three are for deep sea exploration and three are for development.

Thus, he has mentioned five blocks that have licenses for the exploration of land areas and his companies in brackets are Ruvu (DODSAL), Ruvuma (ARA), Kilosa - Kilombero (SWALA), Tanga (AFREN) and Nyuni (Ndovu Resources).

He said the other three have a deep sea exploration license and his companies in brackets are block 1 & 4 (SHELL, Ophir, and Pavillion Energy), block number 2 (Equinor Exxonmobil).

Also, three others have land development license agreements with their companies in the bracket, namely Songo Songo (PAET), Kiliwani North (Ndovu Resources), and Mnazi Bay (Maurel & Prom).

Canuty said the ongoing work in the Ruvu block is the processing and interpretation of 3D seismic data of 481 square kilometers has been completed and preparations for the drilling of two wells are currently underway.

On the part of the Ruvuma block in the Ntorya area, he said, the ongoing work is the collection of 3D seismic data which has been completed.

Canuty said preparations are being made for the drilling of one well as well as preparations for connecting the Ntorya and Madimba area, and for the Kilosa-Kilombero block the ongoing work is preparation for the drilling of a well.

For his part, the Mayor of Morogoro Municipality, Pascal Kihanga, in the opening speech, has asked the journalists of the region to use the capacity built by the Agency to talk about the good things done by the government of the sixth phase to bring sustainable development to its citizens.