Nigeria’s Dangote Cement have reached a deal with Tanzania on the supply of natural gas to the firm’s manufacturing plant in the East African country after negotiations stalled over prices, Reuters reported.

Dangote’s $500m cement factory in the southeastern Tanzanian town of Mtwara, runs on expensive diesel generators and had sought government support to reduce costs. But the talks had been delayed, with the state-run Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) saying that the company was seeking at-the-well prices, informed Ecofin Agency.

Tanzanian President, John Magufuli, said: “They [Dangote Cement] will now buy natural gas directly from the state-run TPDC instead of going through middlemen.” Magufuli hinted that unspecified middlemen interfered with supply plans and said the issue has now been resolved with gas supplies to be sold at a reasonable tariff.

In related new, Tanzania in February, announced that it had discovered a further 2.17Tcf of possible natural gas deposits in an onshore field, thereby increasing its total estimated recoverable natural gas reserves to over 57 tcf.