Governance challenges in Tanzania’s natural gas sector: unregulated lobbyism and uncoordinated policy

Resource discoveries often result in expectations of rapid growth, but also major concerns for increasing corruption. In the context of Tanzania's recent offshore gas field discoveries, uncoordinated public policy and a lack of regulation on lobbyism are important challenges for petroleum governance. The Tanzanian government failed to reach a unified, coordinated policy position and bureaucratic competition was rife. Citizens in general felt bypassed in the process of developing three new petroleum laws, while local businesses and the local chapter of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative came out ahead in the ‘lobby game’. Keywords: Tanzania, offshore gas, lobbying, resource discoveries, petroleum governance, EITI