At least 16 oil offshore blocks in East African Tanzania will be put up for oil exploration licensing beginning September, according to a geologist at state-run Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation.

The details of the plan, which include over 34,000 km of two-dimensional seismic data and over 8,000 square km of three-dimensional data, will be disclosed in April, Reuters reported, quoting Meshack Kagya as saying on Tuesday. The blocks are located in waters ranging 1,500 metres to 3,000 metres deep.

The process of the oil exploration licensing could take until 2013 to close, Mr Kagya said.

Oil exploration companies have been especially focused on discovering and drilling oil in East Africa when in 2006, substantial deposits of crude were discovered in Uganda.

Overall, Tanzania holds more than 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to Mr Kagya's estimates. The country uses some of those for domestic electricity requirements while supplying some to 37 institutions and industries.

To capitalize on this rising economic growth booster, Tanzania, in September, sourced a $1 billion loan from China to construct a natural gas pipeline from Mnazi Bay to Dar es Salaam, as well as on processing plants in Mnazi Bay.

"They are securing the sites for LNG processing in Mtwara region for LNG for export and for domestic markets," Mr Kagya said.

Tanzania is also in the process of building a second pipeline to support an existing one that joins the Songo Songo gas field to Dar es Salaam.

Earlier this week, British gas producer BG Group announced the discovery off more than substantial gas amounts of about 3.4 trillion cubic feet (TCF) in recoverable reserves from the Jordari-1 well in block 1 off the coast of Tanzania. The company said it was 55 per cent more than it initially expected.

The recent discovery brings results from all BG Group's four wells drilled in blocks 1, 3 and 4 in Tanzania close to 7 TCF, 2 TCF short of the minimum reserve threshold to build a two-train liquefied natural gas plant, according to www.ippmedia.com.