Dubai: A major onshore gas find by UAE private firm Dodsal Group in Tanzania is valued at $8 billion (Dh29.37 billion), the company’s owner and chairman said on Monday.
Dubai-based Dodsal has discovered an estimated 2.75 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of sweet gas in two wells in the Ruvu Basin located 50 kilometres from the capital Dar Es Salaam. The find was first reported in February when a company executive said there was an estimated 2.17 TCF in the wells.
Analysis of the two wells is ongoing and there could be as much as 3.8 TCF, owner Rajen Kilachand told reporters.
The $8 billion valuation is based on recent contracts signed by the Tanzanian government to purchase gas from local companies at a rate of $3 per 1,000 cubic feet, the company said.
Dodsal said it is the biggest onshore discovery in Tanzania, increasing the country’s estimated recoverable natural gas reserves to more than 57 TCF.
“The sheer size and the scale will give us a huge capital in the years to come to go in to strengthen our current activities, go into exploration and production worldwide,” Kilachand said.
The company said it plans to spend $300 million on exploration and production in Tanzania over the next 24 months with expectation to bring gas to market in the first quarter of 2018.
Dodsal expects to close talks with financial institutions in London and one bank in the Gulf to raise up to $300 million in financing by mid-year, Kilachand said.
The company has also discovered up to 5.9 TCF in a third well. It said it will confirm the find in May. Based on valuations given by the company on Monday that find would be worth around $17 billion.
Dodsal was awarded an exploration and production concession by the Tanzanian government in 2007.
