Discovery of natural gas lowers power production,consumer costs

THE discovery of natural gas in the country has led to a decline of electricity prices by 33.26 per cent since 2014 to 2016, Deputy Minister of Energy and Minerals Dr Medard Kalemani has revealed. 
Dr Kalemani made the remarks yesterday in Parliament in Dodoma when responding to a question from Special Seat MP Maida Hamad Abdallah who wanted to know the benefits obtained from the discovery natural gas in the country.
“The biggest advantage which the country has gained from the discovery and use of natural gas in electricity production is that it has made the production cheaper compared to fuel. 
Electricity production using natural gas increased from 2,714.25 million units in 2014 to 4196.4 million units in 2016, an increase of 54.61 per cent,” explained Dr Kalemani.
The deputy minister explained further that the discovery of natural gas has seen electricity production cost going down from an average of 188.56/- per unit in 2014 to an average of 125.85/- per unit in 2016.
Detailing more on the benefits gained from the use of natural gas, Energy and Minerals Minister Prof Sospeter Muhongo said some households in Mikocheni in Dar es Salaam Region , including the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) have seen their monthly spending on natural gas for cooking not exceeding 25,000/- 
According to him, until now a total of 37 industries are using energy derived from natural gas, which is cost-effective compared with the cost of other sources of energy.
In addition, he said that his ministry has received funding of USD150 million(over Sh330 billion) from African Development Bank (AfDB) for supplying the gas in regions of Dar es Salaam, Mtwara and Lindi.
Prof Muhongo said that soon after the supply commences, pipes will be laid in Kinyerezi suburb ready to supply the gas in the city and other regions such as Morogoro, Mbeya and Iringa.
He assured the public that the gas which is being used now is more safe and do not explode like the previous ones.
TPDC began to study to explore oil and natural gas in early 1950, involving research in areas of the deep sea, lakes and land. Natural gas discovered in the deep sea is 47.08TCF and in land are 10.17 TCF. The total initial gas in place now stands at 57.25 TCF.