Tanzania’s LNG ambitions fade

The East African country has struggled to make progress on proposed liquefaction developments and the window of opportunity may have already closed

Tanzania’s plans to develop an LNG liquefaction plant appear to have hit the buffers. Despite significant offshore reserves, negotiations between the government and developers have stalled and Norway’s Equinor recently had to write down its sizeable investment in the east African nation. Equinor announced a $980mn impairment on its block 2 Tanzanian LNG project in its fourth quarter results amid low prices in the sector. And while that untapped asset has diminished in value, Tanzanian authorities and IOCs have yet to even establish a legal framework for development. Negotiations had already dragged on for several years before Tanzania paused the talks in August 2019 to review their producti