Tanzania has discovered an additional 2.17 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of possible natural gas deposits, raising the east African nation’s total estimated recoverable natural gas reserves to more than 57 tcf, local media reported on Thursday.

The onshore reserves were found at a field licensed to the United Arab Emirates’ Dodsal Group located at Ruvu basin in Coast region, near the country’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, the state-run Daily News reported.

“We have learnt that there are huge potentials of hydrocarbons in Tanzania. We expect to have more gas discoveries in the near future,” The Citizen newspaper quoted Pilavulathill Surendran, CEO of Dodsal Hydrocarbons and Power (Tanzania) Ltd, as saying.

Most of the gas discoveries in Tanzania were made in deep-sea offshore blocks south of the country near the site of a planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant.

BG Group, acquired by Royal Dutch Shell, along with Statoil, Exxon Mobil and Ophir Energy plan to build the onshore LNG export terminal in the southern Tanzanian town of Lindi in partnership with state-run Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp (TPDC).

East Africa is a new hotspot in hydrocarbon exploration after substantial deposits of oil were found in Uganda and major gas reserves discovered in Tanzania and Mozambique.

Tanzania’s energy and minerals ministry is expected to confirm the gas discovery in the next few days, the Daily News reported. Officials from the energy ministry and executives from Dodsal Group were not immediately reachable for comment.

Reuters