Africa-Press – Tanzania. Dunstan Kitandula, chairman of the Energy and Minerals standing committee of the National Assembly, said in delivering the committee’s assessment of the Energy ministry estimates that the firm’s services were discouraging.
GASCO, a subsidiary of the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) controls the national natural gas infrastructure, along with construction of natural gas distribution systems.
Building natural gas supply systems in Dar es Salaam, Coast and Lindi regions was far too slow, he said, noting that committee members inspected the gas supply infrastructure at the Kinyerezi receiving station in Dar es Salaam
The gas supply project consists of two natural gas processing plants located at Madimba (Mtwara Region) and Songo Songo (Lindi Region) and pipelines to Dar es Salaam, with the onshore natural gas pipeline from Madimba to Tegeta in Dar es Salaam stretching 551 kilometers.
The pipeline capacity from Madimba to Kinyerezi is 784m standard cubic feet per day which can be increased to 1002m with further compression, he said.
GASCO is carrying out a 15.3km gas infrastructure project to connect 125 houses and four institutions (a technical secondary school, vocational training college, teachers’ college and Lilungu Prison) with natural gas, he stated.
It also working on a gas connection project at Raddy Fiber Manufacturing (T) Ltd Mkuranga plant, a 4.3km stretch to connect 85 households in Mikocheni suburb in Dar es Salaam as well as a 16.4km pipeline to connect 155 houses and two establishments at the University of Dar es Salaam, he said.
The committee visited the Kinyerezi receiving centre, the pressure reduction station and the control centre, noticing that everything is going well there “but the pace of connecting customers with the gas service is displeasing,” he elaborated.
He said the government has a good intention to ensure that natural gas changes people’s lives so efforts must be heightened to improve production and supply of natural gas.
Contributing to the debate, some MPs sought robust efforts to address power challenges facing various parts of the country.
Ester Bulaya (Special Seats-Opposition) urged the ministry to heavily fine contractors who fail to complete projects on time without due cause.
“We have witnessed many projects becoming ‘white elephants’ while contractors are paid on time to ensure that they produce quality work,” she stated, demanding that the government be strict in this matter.
“We are using funds of poor Tanzanians who want to see positive outcomes from their taxes,” she emphasized, also asking the ministry to inform the House on the status of quality electricity supply in the country.
Soud Mohamed Juma (Donge) asked the government to focus on implementing initiatives that promote clean energy to stem deforestation.
Flatei Massay (Mbulu Rural) urged the government to focus on promoting the use of natural gas in various activities, including converting motor vehicles to natural gas use, to cut carbon emissions.
Tanzania is yet to utilize the plentiful resource to spur development and fight poverty, while many countries are promoting the use of natural gas and other forms of renewable energy, he said.
Shamsia Mtamba (Mtwara Rural-CUF) said that many areas in Mtwara are yet to be reached with power supply. This hurts the populations and affects economic progress in the region, she added.
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