The Director of Contracting and Licencing Unit from Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority (PURA), Mr. Shigela Malosha said that preparations for the 5th licencing round is underway and that auctioning of some open blocks for exploration of hydrocarbons is scheduled for December 2023 or early 2024. Mr. Malosha highlighted this while delivering a presentation during the 10th East African Petroleum Conference and Exhibition held recently in Kampala, Uganda.

In his presentation, Mr. Malosha hinted that the expected licencing round will be competitive and will involve auctioning of 26 proposed exploration blocks with datasets (potential field data, 2D & 3D seismic data and a well. He clarified that the proposed number of exploration blocks might change depending on the result of the geological assessment of the proposed exploration blocks completed which is currently ongoing.

Speaking about legal and regulatory reforms as preparations toward licencing round, Mr. Malosha explained that the country is now reviewing the 2013 Model Production Sharing Agreement to make the commercial and fiscal terms to be competitive while ensuring the country gets its fair share.

"We are now reviewing the 2013 MPSA to balance the commercial and fiscal terms meaning this review may necessitate the Petroleum Act 2015 being reviewed as well to make sure that the fiscal terms and legal terms are aligned with the current business environment," he added.

As of April 2023, there were 11 licenced petroleum exploration blocks in Tanzania Mainland out of which, three (3) blocks were under the development stage and eight (8) under the exploration stage. In terms of discovery, a total of 57.54 Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF) of gas had been discovered in both onshore and offshore areas.

The upcoming licencing round is expected to attract new investment in petroleum upstream operations in the country thus enhancing chances for more petroleum discoveries.