Neema Lugangira Apson, a Senior Supplies Officer in the ministry responsible for Local Content (LC) said in Dar es Salaam last week that once the merging of the National Energy Policy 2015 (NEP) is completed, the ministry will start the distribution of the same and that all policies related to the energy sector will now be compressed in one document instead of having numerous documents.“In May 2015, LCP in Oil and Gas was Passed by the Cabinet Currently, the Ministry of Energy and Minerals is in the final stages of combining four assed policies into one policy including the LCP 2015) National Energy Policy (NEP) 2015 he Ministry is committed to work with all stakeholders in ensuring that the LCP in Tanzania will be successfully implemented and achieve the intended results,” she emphasized.Apson who was speaking at the seminar on the opportunities available in the oil and gas industry for SMEs said that LC related matters have been included in the new Petroleum Bill known as the Oil & Gas Act to ensure immediate implementation of the same Tanzania’s case Local Content may be referred to as Value added in the country through participation and development of Tanzanians and local businesses. For Local Content purposes definition varies from that of Business Registration and Licensing Agency (BRELA).The crucial definition involves the understanding for local business participation whereas businesses incorporated in Tanzania, which is wholly owned by Tanzanians or with at least 51% shares owned by Tanzanian Nationals and at least 51% of management positions held by Tanzanians She said natural gas was discovered since 1974 but its usage is minimum to-date and that from 2010 discovery of huge natural gas resources in the deep sea whereby Tanzania now has a total of gas resources of 55.08Tcf of which 47.08 TCF from Deep Sea.According to Apson there was high expectation of economic turn-around by Tanzanians, however, local participation in the oil and gas activities in Tanzania is significantly low as only a handful of Tanzanians are engaged in core and service value chains urging Tanzanian SMEs to seize this opportunity as most of the goods and services demanded by the industry are imported.Apson added that key focus areas identified in the LCP include capacity building and technology acquisition, procurement and usage of locally produced goods and services, fabrication and manufacturing of machinery products within Tanzania. “These Key Focus Areas are geared towards ensuring that there will be a significant local participation in the respective value chain hence creating immerse opportunities including specific opportunities for Tanzanian SMEs who are the local businesses targeted by the LCP 2015,” she said.She said potential participation includes semi-core and core such as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), geotechnical/geophysical surveys, met-ocean data, fabrication, yard scaffold, feed activities, engineering design & detailed engineering design and FPSO top side integration, to mention a few.Adding that in the next coming months, the Ministry of Energy and Minerals has planned a series of activities such as informing LC status to key stakeholder groups, outlining the key activities the Ministry intends to undertake in the Local Content Unit (LCU) set-up, LC implementation strategy, LC regulations, LC Communication Strategy and feed into Ministry’s Communication Strategy for the Oil & Gas sub-Sector.