Malawi vows to continue oil gas exploration on Lake Malawi

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Category: News Flash

Published on Thursday, 02 August 2012 13:49

Written by Queen Nhlema

The Malawi government has vowed to continue its oil gas explorations on Lake Malawi despite the Tanzanian government advising it to stop until the lake’s ownership and border disagreements are resolved.

Tanzania’s Foreign Affairs Minister Benard Membe was quoted in domestic media warning Lilongwe that further exploration of oil in Lake Malawi will jeopardize the ongoing negotiations and ignite security threat.

“…any exploration or research activities for oil or gas must stop forthwith as this will likely to jeopardize the on-going negotiations and pose a security threat,” Mzembe was quoted in Tanzanian Daily Times.

However , Malawi’s Energy minister Cassin Chilumpha told local media that Malawi is justified to start exploration of Oil on Lake Malawi as it is within the borders of Malawi as stipulated in the Germany and British treaty of 1890, and reaffirmed by Organization of African Union meeting conducted in 1963.

Tanzanian government is reportedly seeking 50 percent ownership of the lake, a demand Minister of energy and mines, Cassim Chilumpha has dismissed.

“We have communicated to Tanzanina government that oil exploration will not stop, the reason being as far as we are concerned, we understand the exploration is being dome within the legal boundaries,” said Chilumpha.

Chilumpha says Malawi is not in dispute with Tanzania and has never been in any wrangle with the neighboring country.

“There is no dispute on the border between Tanzania and Malawi, let’s talk this with sober minds, and hope this will be solved diplomatically.” Chilupha emphasized.

The next meeting, between Malawi and Tanzania will take place on August 20,2012  in Mzuzu.

In September last year, government awarded an oil and gas exploration licence to British firm, Surestream Petroleum, which is currently conducting an environmental impact assessment.

In the deal, Surestream secured Blocks 2 and 3 in the north of the lake covering Karonga in the border with Tanzania and Nkhata Bay.

The blocks stretch over a combined area of 20,000 square kilometres.

This development comes at a time when the two countries have formed a joint team to resolve the issue of the shifting River Songwe border by creating dams to be used for the economic benefit of the people of Malawi and Tanzania.

The standoff over the lake is reminiscent of a recent dispute between Kenya and Uganda over the tiny Lake Victoria archipelago of Migingo.

Attorney General Frederick Werema said Tanzania would seek international intervention in case diplomatic negotiations on the border dispute did not bear fruit.

“We don’t want Tanzanians to ask for permission from Malawi to fetch water or fish from Lake Nyasa,” Judge Werema said, adding, “If we don’t reach a consensus, we will take recourse in international law.”

He explained that international law requires a border to be in the middle of a water body. Recently, Tanzania announced plans to purchase a new $9 million ferry to ply Lake Nyasa’s waters, provoking a critical response from the Malawian government.

A Malawian government spokesperson said, “Like any international operation, we will need to sign a memorandum of understanding for them to start operating in a foreign water body.”

An official in Malawi’s Ministry of Lands who requested anonymity said Tanzania has no legal right to start operating on Lake Malawi as the issues of the border was still unresolved.

“We have been holding talks over the borders of Lake Malawi (Lake Nyasa) with Tanzania and since we haven’t agreed to anything as of now, the issue of sharing it with Tanzania does not exist,” said the official.

Another source in Malawi told The EastAfrican in Arusha that the perception of a majority of Malawians back home was that the entire lake and even Kyela in Mbeya belongs to their country.

In the early 1960s, Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, then president of Malawi, had claimed that Lake Nyasa and the whole of Mbeya area in Tanzania were part of Malawi.

As a result, a committee was appointed by both countries to solve the dispute over the border and the lake’s name.

To date, however, no one knows whether it was agreed on that the lake be named Lake Nyasa or Lake Malawi or if it was given another name altogether.

Records show that Tanzania’s president Julius Nyerere said that he did not care if the name was Lake Nyasa, Malawi, Banda or Kamuzu, but “borders were not negotiable.”

Anna Mghwira, a political analyst , also told the paper that while the situation on Lake Nyasa remains calm today, the complexity of the boundary disputes between the two developing nations is a time bomb.

“The two countries ought to conclude the issue once and for all, otherwise this wrangle will escalate into unnecessary skirmishes in future,” Ms Mghwira noted.

Lake Nyasa, Africa’s third largest lake at 580km long and up to 80km wide in spots, has been named among the most beautiful places in the world by tourism and travel experts.