More than 125 billion cubic feet of natural gas have been extracted from five wells at Mnazi Bay gas production site in Mtwara region in the last 16 years of operation.

This was revealed in Mtwara region by Production Superintendent for Maurel and Prom (M&P) Exploration Production Limited, Mr Hussein Chitemo during a tour of the gas processing facility for journalists.

The company has made great strides since it started operating in 2006, according to Engineer Chitemo, including providing gas to Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco), the nation's power generation company.

"Gas sales have increased significantly since the business began in 2006, with Tanesco in Mtwara and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) being the main consumers, but some of the gas is utilised in homes and institutions near Mtwara," he said.

Eng Chitemo further said the gas produced contributes to the National Natural Gas Infrastructure Pipeline (NNGI) which goes to Dar es Salaam.

He said the Mnazi Bay natural gas processing facility has five wells that produce 130 million cubic feet of gas per day, which is distributed to Mtwara, Tanesco, and Gas Producing Company Limited (GASCO) Madimba -TPDC subsidiary company.

Tanesco in Mtwara receives 10 million standard cubic feet of gas per day from the plant, and TPDC Madimba receives 130 million standard cubic feet of gas daily.

Even then, he noted, Tanesco Mtwara's use has been rising over time; for instance, instead of using 300,000 cubic feet as before, they now use 3.3 million cubic feet.

Tanzania has discovered 57 trillion cubic feet of gas in which 47 trillion are offshore and 10 trillion are onshore out of which only 0.9-trillion have been extracted.

Gas contributes to 60-per cent of the country's energy source and 40per cent from other sources namely hydro and solar.