Tanzania prepares human capacity for gas economy

Tanzania has started implementing its plan to enhance its human resource capacity in the oil and gas sector over recent discoveries of huge gas fields.

Through Marshall Plan on Capacity Building and Development in Oil and Gas industry programme, about 30 to 50 Tanzanians will be trained in bachelor and masters degree levels in professions related to oil and gas.

The priority study courses will be petroleum geosciences, petroleum geophysics, and petroleum geochemistry. Others are petroleum engineering, energy modeling, oil and gas economics, oil and gas accounting and auditing and oil and gas legal regime and contract negotiations.

The plan was revealed during the ministry of Energy and Minerals Budget speech, whereby more than Sh641 billion was approved with more than Sh531 billion, 82.8 per cent for development projects and more than 17 billion for recurrent.

“In this programme, the ministry will partner with Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation and use the fund for human resource development which is from the contracts in extraction and sharing of oil and natural gas with development partners,” Energy and Minerals minister Prof Sospeter Mhongo told the House.

To implement the programme, Prof Mhongo said his ministry has started in this FY sponsoring 10 best A-level students at Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics whose plan is to pursue their bachelor degree in Oil and Gas at the University of Dodoma.

Besides, the ministry will contribute to costs incurred by students selected to study oil and gas field at certificate and diploma levels at Mineral Resources Institute in Dodoma.

Already, the University of Dar es Salaam has started with preparations of the prospectus for master’s degree in gas and oil ready to admit students in these areas. Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology will also help with the preparation of the diploma and bachelor degree syllabi.

“Sponsored students will start studies in 2013/2014 academic year,” said Prof Mhongo.
The ministry stepping on enhancing the human resource in the gas and oil responds to the raised concern over Tanzania limited trained staffs in the petroleum exploration and developments.

Dr Haji Semboja in his research ‘Petroleum Exploration Study’ in 2009 found that Tanzania had developed a complex policy and legal framework facilitation optimal utilization of domestic human resources in the petroleum exploration industry.

“It is complex because the government had adopted a set of specific approaches through production sharing agreement that are more in line with the liberalized labour market, socio-economic realities of Tanzania and that of the contemporary world,” noted Dr Semboja.

And that the situation requires the citizens to compete for the jobs in employment on the basis of their skills and work experience.

“However, on the other hand it is aware of our human resource constraints that Tanzanians do not have qualifications, experience and skills to compete in this market,” said Dr Semboja

Adding that the country has very few trained, skilled, experienced and professional local manpower to support increasing petroleum activities, which implies that rights of Tanzanians to be recruited, engaged and developed are limited.
Source: The Citizen,http://www.dailynews.co.tz, reported by Felix Lazaro


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