Tanzania’s energy ministry has revealed that Tanzania, Norway’s Equinor and Britain’s Shell have completed negotiations to construct a $30 billion liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal and contracts are being prepared to finalize the deal.

Regulatory delays have left Tanzania’s gas resources tied up for years.

All three parties had advanced the start of the project’s construction when they signed a framework agreement last June. It is the government’s goal to attain a final investment decision for the facility in 2025.

Late Monday the government’s energy ministry posted to its Twitter account a message saying, “Minister January Makamba said negotiations on the construction of the LNG project were complete, and now experts are at work drafting contracts.”

Although it did not give any timeline for when any contracts would be signed, it went on, “Of these contracts, one is about the Host Government Agreement and another is on joining blocks 1, 2 and 4, which will provide natural gas for the LNG project.”

Tanzania’s Block 1 and Block 4 are operated by Shell and are estimated to hold 16 trillion cubic feet in recoverable gas.

Block 2 is operated by Norwegian oil and gas producer Equinor, although Exxon Mobil also holds a stake in it. It is estimated to hold over 20 trillion cubic feet of gas.

The LNG plant to be built in Tanzania’s south east Lindi region is currently being planned out by Equinor and Shell, along with Exxon Mobil, Ophir Energy and Pavilion Energy.

Already, some of Tanzania’s natural gas projects are used to generate power for the nation, and to power manufacturing plants. There are also plans to build a fertilizer plant which will use natural gas to produce urea.

Currently is is estimated by the government it has reserves of recoverable gas of about 57.54 trillion cubic feet, as of June 2022.