Oil & Gas, Regional

Tanzania gas discovery at Mnazi Bay heads for first production in November

30th October, 2026

Tanzania has made its first natural gas discovery since 2015, with Energy Minister Juma Homera putting the Kasa find at Mnazi Bay in Mtwara at 223 billion cubic feet, and operator Maurel & Prom, which holds 60% alongside TPDC, expecting first production from the new well from November.

At Mnazi Bay in Mtwara, on Tanzania’s southern coast, the Kasa-1X ST2 well was drilled from land to reach a reservoir 4.5km offshore under 400 metres of water, and Energy Minister Juma Homera announced on 27 October that it had found an estimated 223 billion cubic feet of gas, the country’s first new discovery since 2015.

Homera said the well “is expected to produce about 30 million cubic feet of gas per day for at least 10 years”, with first production expected from November. Maurel & Prom, the French operator that holds 60% of the licence alongside the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) with 40%, put the find at about 200 billion cubic feet gross in its 22 October activity update, an estimate it has not yet classified, and sees gross production potential at Kasa of 50 million cubic feet a day.

Output at Mnazi Bay has already risen with the MB-5 and MS-2 development wells, which have taken the field to about 130 million cubic feet a day, according to Maurel & Prom, and more than 80% of its gas fuels electricity generation at TANESCO’s plants in Mtwara and Dar es Salaam.

TPDC, which doubled its stake in the licence from 20% to 40% in 2024, is in talks with four investors planning small-scale LNG projects, three of them in Mtwara, and puts Tanzania’s total gas resources at 57.54 trillion cubic feet, 47.13 trillion of them in deep water offshore.

A day after the discovery was announced, the government awarded TPDC four exploration licences in its own name for the first time, covering Mnazi Bay North, West Songo Songo, Eyasi-Wembere and Lindi-Mtwara, at a signing in Dar es Salaam on 28 October attended by Vice President Deogratius Ndejembi. Homera said the licences marked “a new chapter in TPDC’s management of oil and gas exploration blocks”.

Images: Reuters

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