Tanzania’s Oil and Gas Industry: Legal Regime, Management and Access Rights

Abstract

This article examines the extent to which the legal and management framework governing the rapidly developing oil and gas industry in Tanzania provides access rights to key stake- holders. The focus on management and access rights has been confined to rights to access the resource by the government, the private sector and the local communities. The article sets out the historical context that is necessary for a thorough understanding of the develop- ment of the industry and the legal and regulatory framework put in place by the government to address issues of management, to access rights and to control of the industry. The analysis focuses primarily on the provisions of the recently enacted laws, the Petro- leum Act, the Oil and Gas Revenue Act and the Extractive Industry Transparency and Ac- countability Act. These laws were passed towards the end of 2015 in a charged session of the Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania which was the last before the gruelling National Elections that followed. Members of the opposition Parties in Parliament had cried foul, alleging that citizens had been hood-winked arguing that the process of presenting the Petroleum Bill had been unnecessarily fast-tracked.1 In the context of access rights by the government, the article’s primary focus is on the legislative framework governing access to the oil and gas subsector by the government. The main focus is on Tanzania Mainland. However, in the process of analysing access rights of government, the article also brings to the fore the controversial issues relating to access rights and control of oil and gas resources between the governments of Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar.