Tanzania should emulate Norway oil success
Speaking in Dar es es salaam last week during a meeting that was organized by the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, the Statoil Norway based company Chief Executive Officer Mr. Arve Johnsen said that there was need for Tanzania to come up with policies for the oil and gas sector if the entire country is to benefit from the resources.
He said that the elements and good policies for these natural resources that the country is endowed with were the best practice for a country to move its economy forward and attain its development for both the private and public sector noting that it is only if the government is fully involved in the process that the development be realized.
"The government is likely to be successful if good policies can be put in place and make sure that the state introduces an operational mining company that will help to oversee the production process and make sure that timely information is released when needed" Mr. Johnsen said.
He noted that Norway, with 50 years experience in both mining and exploration processes, has much to share with the country in order for it to learn how the state can raise the capital in order to be part of the exploration and production of oil and gas resources.
"There is need for the country to know about who will own the pipelines, production process and whether to involve one company or number of them in the whole process.”
He added that due to lack of capital, Norway had to use the reserve it had as a source of capital for the government to have a share in the gas and oil production processes.
He said that there was need for the government to start being involved in the whole processes of production noting that the country should not hesitate to be involved in the process as that would mean it stands a better chance economically as there were a lot of profit in the gas and oil sectors.
He underscored that with Norway experiences in which there are three companies that were operating in the oil and gas exploration. One was wholly owned by the government while the other is 50% owned by the government and the third company is wholly owned by the private sector.
The Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals Mr. Eliakim Maswi told East African Business Week that, it was the right time for the country to have these seminars on gas, oil and other exploration companies even before the policies were put into place.
He said, it was important that with the drafting of the gas and oil policies, the government will be able to make inclusions on lessons from Norway so that the oil and gas should benefit the majority of Tanzanians.
"I never knew that in a country like Norway, they had policies that would first benefit the Norwegians before anyone else and that is a good policy that we also need to emulate from them," the PS said.
He said that with the discovery of 33 trillion barrels of gas in Tanzania it was important for a country to look for expatriates from overseas with experience in the sector and see how best we can learn to manage the resources so as to benefit the majority of Tanzanians especially now that we are exploring these resources for business.
The PS also concurred with the Statoil CEO Mr. Johnsen by saying it was important for the government to have the ownership of these resources to make sure that these resources benefit citizens in the country.
Concerning whether the country was prepared in terms of the expertise to manage these gas and oil resources, the PS said that the country has already introduced such trainings in the country and currently there were 10 students being trained at the University of Dodoma in Tanzania while several others from TPDC and the Ministry were oversees receiving similar trainings.
Tanzania hasn't had gas and oil policies since 1952 when the first prospects for exploration started and is expected to start drafting such polices next week.
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