Together Unveiling the Untapped Oil and Gas Potential

....it seems there are more possibilities to more energy supply. DAILY NEWS Reporter, Arusha Daily News; Thursday,March 08, 2007 @00:08 PRESIDENT Jakaya Kikwete has called for increased gas and oil exploration in East Africa in order to tap the high potential of the natural resources for the region’s development. Opening the third East African Petroleum Conference at Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge here yesterday, President Kikwete said the region remained largely under-explored despite the high potential for oil and gas strikes. “I therefore call upon all investors present here today to look seriously at the region’s potential. We welcome investors, both local and foreign, to look into establishing petroleum service companies in our region to take advantage of the potential for the growth of the petroleum industry,” said Mr Kikwete. More than 300 industry stakeholders are attending the three-day conference that is dubbed EAPC 07. The theme of the conference is: "Together Unveiling the Untapped Oil and Gas Potential”. East Africa, he said, was not only a prospective oil producing region but also offered good market potential for petroleum and its products. “For instance, the consumption of oil in the region stands at more than 32 million barrels annually,” Mr Kikwete said, adding that the world market indicated that the current high demand for petroleum, standing at more than 82.5 million barrels per day, is growing at a rate of 1.3 per cent. Current world market price trends for petroleum and its products may not fall to the levels experienced in the late 1990s since demand was growing and supply falling, he said. The president also underscored the need for natural resources to benefit surrounding communities as experience had shown that endowment with oil resources did not always guarantee prosperity for the people and the respective countries in terms of economic growth. “This is the ultimate challenge for us. Deliberate steps need to be taken to ensure that exploitation of these resources benefit our people, contribute to the growth of our economies while remaining profitable to investors,” Mr Kikwete noted. EAC Secretary General Dr Juma Mwapachu said the conference has been organised at a time when the global energy sector faced a decade of unprecedented change and uncertainty. “Expensive energy, especially for the developing economies, the shift of supplies of oil and natural gas to remote and often geopolitically unstable areas and negative environmental impacts were some of the factors behind the mess,” Dr Mwapachu said.

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