British multinational oil and gas company, BG Group and explorer Ophir Energy have announced the discovery of more gas off the coast of Tanzania.

The partners said that the discovery at the Mzia well will provide a substantial boost to their total estimate of how much gas they have found in Tanzania, helping prove there is volume enough to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export.

This development raises hopes that the East African country will become a major player the oil and gas.  According to a statement by Ophir’s Chief Executive Nick Cooper, the success at Mzia-1 is a major step towards a Tanzanian LNG hub development in Block 1.

The East African sub-region has seen heightened interest from the oil industry in recent years and the previously little-explored area is tipped to become a major natural gas producing region, exporting LNG to fast-growing energy-hungry countries in Asia. Thus, exploration has been intense in the horn of Africa.

In a related development, U.S. explorer Anadarko Petroleum Corp also announced the discovery of a major gas field of the coast of Mozambique. Mozambican oil fields have drawn, Shell, a major oil multinational, to the area in recent times, and it is in the process of trying to buy Britain’s Cove Energy with the Mozambican government support.

According to a statement, BG and Ophir said they discovered the gas in a deeper geological zone than the previous finds that they’ve made in Tanzania, fuelling confidence of additional finds in the same zone on neighbouring exploration blocks.

Mzia is the partnership’s fifth successful exploration well off the coast of Tanzania.