(Ecofin Agency) - Towards easing the discomfort of prolonged power shortages in the country, Tanzania has introduced a $1.33 billion project to convey natural gas to Dar es Salaam.

The 532 km (330 mile) Mtwara-Dar es Salaam pipeline and gas processing plants, which were backed by a Chinese loan, is among efforts to add 2,000 MW of power by 2018 in order to boost Tanzania’s capacity to 10,000 megawatts come 2025.

The country is to use coal reserves and renewable resources like wind and geothermal.

By increasing the capacity, the government intends to meet the increasing domestic demands as well as exporting to neighboring countries.

Tanzania reveals that it has approximately 55 tcf of recoverable natural gas reserves off  its southern coastline adding that it is moreover confident that by switching to gas-fired power plants, it will be able to save about $1 billion yearly in oil imports intended for electricity generation once the pipeline has been completed.

It has  however been predicted that the region might possibly turn out to be the world's third-largest exporter of natural gas due to recent finds in Tanzanian and Mozambican waters. Reuters reports