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| Songas gas tanks in Dar es Salaam |
The government is expected to table a Natural Gas Bill in the National
Assembly during its next session in April, the National Assembly was told on
Wednesday.
Winding up a debate on government report on implementation of National
Assembly resolutions on natural gas sub-sector, the Minister for Energy and
Minerals, Mr William Ngeleja, also said
that a Natural Gas Revenue Management Bill is in the pipeline.
“In addition to the above, we are planning to have a Natural Gas Master
Plan before the end of this year. All these efforts aim at ensuring that the
country benefits from the natural resource,” Mr Ngeleja said on Tuesday evening
here.
The Minister also hinted that plans were afoot to review Production
Sharing Agreements (PSAs) entered between the Tanzania Petroleum Development
Corporation (TPDC) and companies prospecting oil and natural gas.
“In a bid to have full control of the natural gas, we will establish a
company to transport natural gas that will be public owned,” the minister said,
adding:
“Apart from the current general policy on the energy sector, the
government will also formulate a specific policy on natural gas sub-sector that
will guide exploration, production and transportation of the energy.”
He told the House that the government was committed to ensure the
country benefited from the natural resource by putting interests of the nation
ahead of investors’ interests.
Mr Murtaza Mangungu (Kilwa North-CCM) complained that even as natural
gas supplied to Dar es Salaam is produced in his constituency, the people of
Kilwa have not benefited from the natural resource.
Mr Hamad Rashid Mohamed (Wawi-CUF), proposed that TPDC retain 100 per
cent of all revenues obtained in the sector unlike now where it collects only
50 per cent.
He also called for involvement of academicians in institutions of
higher learning in drafting of crucial contracts to avoid pacts bent to serve
the interests of investors at the expense of Tanzanians.
Source: The Daily News,www.dailynews.co.tz, reported by Alvar Mwakyusa in Dodoma
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