By AGENCIES
ROYAL Dutch Shell is stepping up efforts to help clear the way to explore for oil and gas in east Africa after a decade-long delay due to a standoff between Zanzibar and Tanzania on the sharing of potential revenue, company officials said.
The dispute between semi-autonomous Zanzibar and its mainland rulers has prevented Shell from starting work on four blocks off Zanzibar's coast or selling interests in its exploration rights in the region, which has become a hot spot for oil and gas exploration after new finds.
Shell said it could not discuss details of its negotiations with the governments but was hopeful of a resolution.
The oil major will be able to move forward when a production-sharing agreement it started negotiations on in 2003 is finalised.
"We have recently been engaging with both the Tanzanian and Zanzibar governments with a view to achieving this, which would allow exploration activities to begin," a spokesman for Shell who declined to be named, said in an email.
"We understand the complex issues involved, and we are playing a constructive and full part in seeking to resolve them as soon as possible."
Zanzibar has said since Shell won rights to the blocks in 2002 that the revenue from any discovery should be for its sole benefit.
State-owned Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp (TPDC) fears that making a politically unpopular decision could stoke separatist sentiments in Zanzibar.
Government officials in Tanzania and Zanzibar said meetings to discuss the standoff have all but ceased, while an escalation of tensions as separatist Islamist groups clashed with police on May 27 has worsened the impasse.
"There have been a number of meetings, and a committee has been set (to resolve the issue). But they are not meeting anymore ... all have grown tired," said Elias Kilembe, a senior geologist with the TPDC said.
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