This briefing note summarizes findings from a research study on the im-pacts from construction of the Mtwara – Dar es Salaam Natural Gas Pipeline on the land rights of displaced communities in Lindi and Mtwara. The study was commissioned by Oxfam in Tanzania and undertaken in February 2016. The research aims at contributing to improvement in the governance of natural resources in Tanzania through highlighting strengths and gaps in policy design and implementation and opportuni-ties for improvement. A series of discoveries of oil and gas along the East African coast, from mid 2000s earned the region the title of the new oil and gas frontier.1 This came as a result of discovery of oil in Uganda (2006), Kenya (2012) and significant quantities of natural gas in Tanzania and Mozambique from 2010.2 While most of the reserves have not come online yet, the status of East Africa as an `under explored` region means there are higher prospects that there will be an “even larger share of global production and reserves in the future.”3