Tanzania has discovered an additional 2.17tcf of possible natural gas deposits, raising the east African nation’s total estimated recoverable natural gas reserves to more than 57tcf, local media reported according to E&P. Energy and Minerals Minister, Sospeter Muhongo, said that the onshore discovery had been made last July at the Ruvu basin onshore block, wrote AllAfrica.

The official announcement was delayed because the country was going through a political transition and the oil and gas revenues management Act 2015, which gives the minister powers to make such a declaration, was not yet operational, according to Muhongo.

The onshore reserves were found at a field licensed to the United Arab Emirates’ Dodsal Group located at Ruvu basin in Coast region, near the country’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.

“We have learnt that there are huge potentials of hydrocarbons in Tanzania. We expect to have more gas discoveries in the near future,” Dodsal Hydrocarbons and Power (Tanzania) Ltd. said.

Previously, most of the gas discoveries in Tanzania were made in deep-sea offshore blocks south of the country near the site of a planned LNG plant.