**2.2 Natural gas**

The country has abundant natural gas reserves in the coastal basin that are estimated at more than 45 billion cubic metres [TIC, 2007]. Significant gas discoveries have been made on the coastal shores of Indian Ocean. Four discoveries of natural gas fields so far have been established in the vicinities of Songo Songo Island (about 250 km south of Dar es salaam in 1974), Mukuranga (about 60 km South of Dar es Salaam, in December 2007), Mnazi Bay (about 450 km south of Dar es Salaam in 1982) and Kiliwani North (about 2.5 km South East of Songo Songo Island in April, 2008), but only two gasfield i.e. Songo Songo and Mnazi Bay are producing.

Songo Songo gasfield was estimated at 810 billion standard cubic feet, while proven, probable and possible reserves stood at 1.1 trillion standard cubic feet. Mnazi bay gas reserves are estimated at 2.2 trillion standard cubic feet. The gas from Songo Songo Island is transported by pipeline to Dar es Salaam where it is distributed to electricity generation plant and industries especially cement industry. Natural gas supplied to Songas Power Plant generates about 200 MW of electricity. The generated electricity is fed into the National Electricity grid and distributed to end users by TANESCO. In 2010, TANESCO started operating its own plant at Ubungo to generate 102 MW from natural gas. Symbion Power Plant is a private company using natural gas to generate 112.5 MW. Tegeta is generating 45 MW from natural gas. It is anticipated that in the near future more IPPs will generate power using the same gas from Songo Songo gas field.


Table 3. Future Hydropower projects (Source EWURA Annual Report 2008/09)

In Mtwara the same gas is extracted at Mnazi bay and is used to generate electricity to Mtwara and Lindi Regions. The two regions are not connected to the National electricity grid. Electricity generation from natural gas is increasing and it is anticipated that in the near future, natural gas will replace hydropower as source of electricity generation in Tanzania. Electricity generated from natural gas is given in Table 4.


Table 4. Electricity Generated from Natural gas Source (Source TANESCO, 2011)

Future thermal power projects under plan are given in Table 5


Table 5. Future Thermal Power generation from coal and natural gas **(Source MEM 2011).** 
