DAR ES SALAAM, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Tanzania has discovered anadditional 2.17 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of possible naturalgas deposits, raising the east African nation's total estimatedrecoverable natural gas reserves to more than 57 tcf, localmedia reported on Thursday.
The onshore reserves were found at a field licensed to theUnited Arab Emirates' Dodsal Group located at Ruvu basin inCoast region, near the country's commercial capital, Dar esSalaam, the state-run Daily News reported.
"We have learnt that there are huge potentials ofhydrocarbons in Tanzania. We expect to have more gas discoveriesin the near future," The Citizen newspaper quoted PilavulathillSurendran, CEO of Dodsal Hydrocarbons and Power (Tanzania) Ltd,as saying.
Most of the gas discoveries in Tanzania were made indeep-sea offshore blocks south of the country near the site of aplanned liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant.
BG Group, acquired by Royal Dutch Shell, along withStatoil, Exxon Mobil and Ophir Energy plan to build the onshore LNG export terminal in the southernTanzanian town of Lindi in partnership with state-run TanzaniaPetroleum Development Corp (TPDC).
East Africa is a new hotspot in hydrocarbon explorationafter substantial deposits of oil were found in Uganda and majorgas reserves discovered in Tanzania and Mozambique.
Tanzania's energy and minerals ministry is expected toconfirm the gas discovery in the next few days, the Daily Newsreported. Officials from the energy ministry and executives fromDodsal Group were not immediately reachable for comment. (Reporting by Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala; Editing by George Obulutsaand David Holmes)
