Preparations for the fifth licencing round in Tanzania Mainland is underway, according to Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority (PURA.

The regulator adds that the auctioning of some open blocks for exploration of hydrocarbons will be conducted at the end of this year or early 2024.

PURA's Director of Contracting and Licencing Mr Shigela Malosha revealed this the 10th East African Petroleum Conference and Exhibition held recently in Kampala, Uganda.

In his presentation, Mr Malosha clued the participants that the exercise will be competitive.

Pura plans to auction the proposed 26 exploration blocks with existing datasets (potential field data, 2D & 3D seismic data and a well).

Furthermore, the director said that the proposed number (26) might change after the geological assessment of the proposed exploration blocks completed which is still ongoing.

Speaking about legal and regulatory reforms as preparations toward licencing round, Mr Malosha explained that the country is now reviewing the 2013 Model Production Sharing Agreement to make the commercial and fiscal terms to be competitive while ensuring the country gets its fare share.

"We are now reviewing the 2013 MPSA to balance the commercial and fiscal terms meaning this review may necessitate the Petroleum Act 2015 being reviewed as well to make sure that the fiscal terms and legal terms are aligned with the current business environment," said Mr Malosha.

As of April, 2023, there were 11 licenced petroleum blocks in Tanzania Mainland out of which, three (3) were under development stage and eight (8) under exploration stage.

In terms of discovery, a total of 57.54 Trilion Cubic Feet (TCF) of gas had been discovered both onshore and offshore.

The upcoming licecing round is expected to attract new investment in petroleum upstream operations in the country thus enhancing chances for more petroleum discoveries.