Kenya, Tanzania Leaders Plan to Explore Natural-Gas Trading

(Bloomberg) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Tanzanian counterpart, John Magufuli, agreed to explore trading in natural gas, which companies including Equinor ASA are looking to develop for export.

“We have natural gas, a lot of gas. We know Kenya needs gas,” Magufuli said during Kenyatta’s visit to his country. “Instead of Kenya importing gas from outside East Africa, they should buy from here,” he said in a statement emailed by Kenya’s presidency.

The energy ministries of both countries will start talks on required policies and infrastructure, according to the statement.

Tanzania has so far discovered more than 56 trillion cubit feet of natural gas and is currently engaging international oil companies individually on the terms of developing a $30 billion LNG project. Equinor, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Ophir Energy Plc own natural-gas blocks in the East African nation.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ken Karuri in Dar es Salaam at kkaruri@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Malingha at dmalingha@bloomberg.net, James Amott

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