Tanzania’s new natural gas find at the Kasa-1X ST2 well in the Mnazi Bay area is estimated at 223 billion cubic feet (about 6.3 billion cubic meters), the country’s first such discovery in about a decade.
Energy Minister Juma Homera called it a “major milestone” at a ceremony at the well, which is jointly owned by the state-owned Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) and French oil company Maurel & Prom. The well is expected to begin production early next month, with the gas going to domestic supply for power plants, industry and vehicles. For scale, Tanzania already has natural gas reserves of 57.54 trillion cubic feet, so the new find adds roughly 0.4% to that total. Natural gas supplied nearly 80% of Tanzania’s electricity generation in 2024, according to government figures, and the country has been promoting compressed natural gas as a cheaper vehicle fuel, mainly in Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s first gas discoveries were at Songo Songo Island in 1974 and Mnazi Bay in 1982, with commercial production starting in 2004.
Source: BBC News, “Tanzania celebrates first natural gas discovery in more than 10 years” (October 28, 2026)
Image: Songo Songo Gas Plant. Iain Cameron, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.