TANZANIA TO GENERATE 2000MW ELECTRICITY FROM NATURAL GAS BY 2018

Posted on : Tuesday , 13th October 2015

Tanzania hopes to generate 2000 megawatts from natural gas in the next three years as the country hopes to increase its power generation capacity to 10,000 megawatts by 2025.

Already the country has launched a 532 kilometre from Mtwara through Songo Songo to Dar es Salaam pipeline last weekend will utilize gas from four onshore wells at the Kiliwani North Development license.

The 24-36 inch pipeline which was financed by the Export Import Bank of China through a $1.25 billion concessional loan began construction in 2013 with corks being undertaken by the China Petroleum Technology and Development Corporation (CPTDC), a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Company (CNPC).

The pipeline launched last weekend began at amounts of
60 MMcf/day from three production wells each producing 20MMcf/day with the fourth well also expected to produce 20MMcf/day is expected to come online by the end of October making the daily total output 80MMcf/day.

The pipeline has a total capacity of 784 MMcf/d of gas, to be used for the production of 3,900 MW of electricity.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete during the launch said utilization of natural gas for generation of electricity would help end power shortages that continue to plague the East African country due to the overreliance on the weather independent hydropower which contributes 57 % of total power.
Already six dams used for power generation have been shut down as water levels continue to drop.

Tanzania has been generating power from natural gas since 2008 through the Ubungo Gas Plant which has a total installed capacity of 104 MW from twelve generating units each with a capacity of 8.73MW.

Other than natural gas Tanzania hopes to utilize its coal reserves as well as wind and geothermal.