Tanzania’s Gas Demand To Outstrip Supply by 2018

Tanzania is expected to surpass its current supply in the next two years with the current demand being 80mmscf/d mainly from existing power plants as the country continues to experience chronic power shortages according to Wentworth Resources.

Next year the demand is expected to surge to 120mmscf/d with the new buyers mainly being industrial users.

Currently Tanzania has two gas processing facilities the Gas Processing plant at Madimba capacity of up to 210mmscf/d and Songo Songo gas processing facility with capacity of up to 140mmscf/d supplied by a 36 inch gas line and 16 inch gas line respectively.

Mnazi Bay JV consisting of Maurel et Prom (Operator), Wentworth Resources and TPDC is currently the only supplier of gas in Tanzania into new pipeline with the gas sales agreement signed in September 2014 being to supply up to 130mmscf/d although production volumes are expected to reach 70-80mmscf/d by end Q1 2016 and remain in this levels until 2017.

Gas from Mnazi Bay is currently being used to fire the Kinyerezi-1 power generation plant with a 150 MW production capacity.

The capacity of the Songas processing plant was increased further to 105MMScfd, 35MMSCfd above design capacity and 15MMscfd on top of designed capacity. Songas’ facilities are now at their physical limits and cannot increase throughput any further without a significant investment.

Gas from the Songo Songo gas field is processed on the island at Songas’ processing facility to remove water and other hydrocarbon condensates. It is then transported through a 225 kilometre pipeline to Dar es Salaam where it is used in Songas’ Ubungo Power Plant (“UPP”), the largest gas-fired power station in East Africa.

Songas’ power plant is located in Ubungo and uses six aero-derivative gas fired turbines that generate 180MW of electricity or approximately 25% of Tanzania’s current electricity demand. This electricity is supplied to the national electricity grid and distributed to end users by TANESCO.

The current total electricity production from gas fired power stations is at 595MW broken down as Ubungo I Thermal Power Station 100MW, Ubungo II Thermal Power Station 120MW, Tegeta Thermal Power Station 45MW, Mtwara Thermal Power Station 18MW, Songas Thermal Power Station 180MW  and Kinyerezi I Thermal Power Station 150MW.