Norwegian energy giant Equinor says the case for the long-stalled Tanzania LNG project has improved following the Middle East conflict, Reuters reported on August 25.

Development of the $42 bn project in East Africa has been hit with lengthy delays amid insistence by Dodoma to renegotiate the fiscal, legal, and commercial terms of the project agreed to in 2023.

In May 2025, the Tanzanian government stated it sought to finalise terms on the export terminal with international oil and gas companies by October of that year.

After that deadline was missed, in January Tanzanian official said they expected to sign an agreement before June 2026 to green light production to begin in about eight years. 

Now, hope is emerging again that the prospects of the project have improved given the need for more LNG following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran and damage that will take years to repair at liquefaction units at QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffan Industrial Complex.

"You don't want ​to wait too long to put new LNG volumes on the market, so ​maybe now is a good time to get on with it," Philippe Mathieu, Equinor's head of international ‌operations told a group of reporters at an energy conference in Norway.

Norway’s Equinor and Shell, which is the world’s largest trader of the super-chilled fuel, are joint operators of the huge project. If developed, the project would unlock 47.13 tn cubic feet (1.33 tn cubic metres) of ​natural gas deposits. Meanwhile, the export terminal is expected to have a production capacity of 15mn tonnes per year (tpy).

US supermajor Exxon Mobil, Singapore’s Pavilion Energy, Indonesia’s Medco Energi ​and Tanzania's ⁠national oil company TPDC also hold stakes in the project, which would be ideally positioned geographically to serve as an LNG export hub for Asian markets.