Shell executive on Monday said it had made good progress with Tanzanian government in recent months to advance a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project to tap the East African country’s huge gas resources.
Shell’s Head of Integrated Gas, Wael Sawan, said “we have seen some real quick progress over the last year compared to what had been a much slower progress before.
“We continue to be hopeful that we can take this project all the way through to FID (Final Investment Decision) at some stage.’’
The development of Tanzania’s vast offshore gas resources has been held up for years due to delays in government licensing agreements, but Sawan told reporters that some fiscal disputes “have now been resolved.”
Shell operates Block 1 and Block 4 off Tanzania, which hold 16 trillion cubic feet in estimated recoverable gas. It aims to develop an LNG project together with Norway’s Equinor (EQNR.OL).
Equinor also operates Block 2, in which ExxonMobil (XOM.N) also holds a stake and which is estimated to hold more than 20 trillion cubic feet of gas.