DAR ES SALAAM, March 6 (Reuters) - Tanzania said on

Thursday it will launch its fifth oil and gas licensing round in

May in which 26 exploration blocks will be put to auction to

help draw fresh investment in the east African country's

hydrocarbons sector.

Of the blocks on offer, 23 are offshore in the Indian Ocean

while three are also offshore but in Lake Tanganyika, Charles

Sangweni, director general for the country's Petroleum Upstream

Regulatory Authority (PURA) told Reuters.

It will be Tanzania's first oil and gas licensing round in

more than a decade.

Past exploration led to the discovery of more than 57

trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves that the country is

now using to generate more than half of its electricity.

Sangweni said they are targeting to launch the exploration

round during an Africa energy summit in London in May.

"This kind of activity (launching licensing round) is

required to be conducted in major conferences which attracts

major investors of the oil and gas sector," he said.

"The nearest conference we are targeting for that activity

is the Africa Energy Summit that will be held in May in London."

Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan's administration is

expected to conclude negotiations on a stalled $42 billion LNG

project with investors by June.

Equinor ( EQNR ) and Shell are joint operators of

the country's mega gas project, while Exxon Mobil ( XOM ),

Pavilion Energy, Medco Energi, and Tanzania's national

oil company TPDC are partners.