BY JASTON BINALA
30th September 2013
Expert: Transparency will prevent political chaos
The notice is in compliance with the demands of the International Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) to which the country is now a member.
However, the government has made it clear that this applies only to new contracts and agreements, saying it is bound by law to keep past contracts confidential.
Maswi made the announcement when briefing journalists last week on the extractive industry in Tanzania.
Speaking at the meeting organised by the Tanzania Media Fund, a lecturer on resource management from Accra, Ghana, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam said a country such as Tanzania must be very transparent in its mineral extraction contracts to avert political chaos and social conflict, a combination the so called resource curse.
He warned that, mineral resources are finite, they get depleted over time and so proper management plans must be put in place with clear guidelines as to how future generations will benefit from the resources.
He strongly advised that those responsible for the extraction of the resources must be transparent and must also be held responsible for decisions they make.
The call comes at a most relevant time, as the scheduled October bidding for some seven deep offshore gas blocks and one onshore block for oil and gas exploration is set to commence.
If followed through, the publicity of contracts and agreements represents a huge leap from the previously secret shrouded deals like the early 2000’s scandal where a large mining agreement between the government and a multinational firm were signed in the secrecy of a hotel in Europe sparking allegations of corruption and abuse of office.
Now that extraction of the ‘black gold’ is said to be more than probable and drilling for gas already underway, the threat of secret documents and the implication of corruption so posed is much more profound.
Consider, Tanzania was previously estimated to have 43.1 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas reserves, most of it found offshore south-east of the country. The Minister for energy and minerals, Sospeter Muhongo, announced back in May that 17 new wells would be drilled during the 2013/14 (July-June) fiscal year at a cost of some $680 million.
But the details of the contracts entered into drill the wells are not public leaving room for speculation and conspiracy.
"It is expected that Tanzania's natural gas resources will rise to 200 trillion cubic feet after the next two years," the Ministry recently said. Discoveries in offshore Tanzania and Mozambique's waters have led to predictions the region could become the world's third-largest exporter of natural gas, with the country strategically located for exports to Asia.
Already 16 international energy companies have been licensed to search for oil and gas. These include the British gas company BG Group, Norway's state owned corporation Statoil, Brazil's Petrobras and Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil Corp.
Apart from gold in the Lake zone gold fields, Tanzania is also the abode of huge deposits of diamonds and gem stones. Major diamond mining areas are in northern Tanzania, around Shinyanga, Mwananga, Mabuki and Mwanza, but the Williamson Diamond Mine at Mwadui is the only formal mining operation, with exports of $17 million recorded in 1998.
Diamonds worth an estimated $13 million to $16 million per year are produced by artisanal miners and exported, mostly through informal channels. Commercially exploitable deposits of coloured gems on the eastern side of the Rift Valley are now the subject of a mining rush comparable only to that of Brazil in the 1980s.
Tanzania is also host to two gemstones that are not found anywhere else in the world, Tanzanite and green garnet. The only known deposit of Tanzanite in the world is near Mererani, in northern Tanzania between Arusha and Moshi.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
No comments :
Post a Comment