EFFORTS towards the country getting its first Liquefied Natural Gas plant have gone a notch higher with the acquisition of a land title deed by Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) of the site where the LNG will be located.Speaking to the ‘Daily News’ over the weekend, the TPDC Director of Exploration and Development, Mr Kelvin Komba, said that by TPDC’s securing of the title deed, government is officially ready to host the construction of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Plants (Trains).
But Mr Komba was quick to add that the actual LNG plant was still many years away since there were still various technical processes that needed to be accomplished to succeed in bringing the gas from 100 kilometres away from offshore to the trains when constructed.
TPDC recently ran a notice in this newspaper, highlighting that the government had paid 6m US Dollar (12.9bn/-) for assessment and compensation of 450 people in the backwater coastal town in Lindi.
Mr Komba said the next process was to make compensations and also inform oil and gas companies that they should start making assessment on how they would put infrastructure between the gas over 100 kilometres offshore and the shoreline.
The chosen 6,800-acre site, which will have an LNG plant on 2,000 acres, and an industrial park, is viewed as one that would turn around prospects of the country, particularly in the southern parts of the country.
The LNG will receive and treat reservoir gas from the fields in blocks 1, 2, 3 and 4, where discovery of 55 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas in massive deep offshore waters was made.
TPDC acquired the title deed for about 2,000 acres of land for the LNG trains as well as gas processing projects in the town. The government has also set aside another land in surrounding areas for development of industrial parks that will purchase the gas from the facility.