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Oliver Kazunga-Senior Business Reporter
INVICTUS Energy, the Australia-headquartered firm exploring oil and gas in the north of Zimbabwe, says it is closer to launching its Mukuyu-2 test well drilling programme after successfully achieving key milestones last month.
The company recently commenced mobilisation of Polish firm Exalo Drilling S.A’s rig number 202 to the Mukuyu-2 wellsite in the Cabora Bassa Basin in Muzarabani and Mbire districts of Mashonaland Central Province.
Managing director Scott Macmillan said working alongside Invictus were various well-service providers who were awarded contracts to carry out the latest exploration drilling exercise in the firm’s licence areas in the Cabora Bassa programme.
“Invictus is inching closer to launching our landmark Mukuyu-2 drilling campaign with a range of exciting developments achieved in the last month.
“Construction at the selected Mukuyu-2 wellsite, a little over 6 kilometres from Mukuyu-1 / ST-1 site, has commenced with clearing and compaction complete, and well trajectory confirmed, with the campaign on track to spud in the third quarter this year,” he said.
The drilling campaign at Mukuyu-2 wellsite follows the Mukuyu-1 prospect exploration drilling conducted in September last year.
Although technical glitches were experienced before Mukuyu-1 exploration drilling was restrained as Invictus could not extract a fluid sample to fulfil regulatory requirements to declare a commercial discovery, large natural gas and oil reserves were confirmed in the Cabora Bassa Basin.
The confirmation of hydrocarbons in Zimbabwe creates an opportunity for an additional source of energy for Zimbabwe, which could unlock a number of other massive economic growth opportunities.
Potential downstream industries that may be created in the event of commercial discovery include job creation, growth of export earnings, and Government revenue.
“The Mukuyu-2 appraisal well follows our Mukuyu-1 / ST-1 play opening campaign completed earlier this year that confirmed the presence of a working hydrocarbon system with light oil and liquids-rich gas, as well as helium which could add a valuable revenue stream to the company given growing demand for high-end technological applications.
“Targeting multiple horizons intersected in the Mukuyu-1 / ST-1 well in an updip location including primary Upper Angwa and untested Lower Angwa reservoirs, the appraisal well will provide valuable data for all prospective formations and characterise wider basin prospectivity and high-grade additional drill ready targets,” said Mr Macmillan.
Following spud (early-stage oil/gas field drilling), the campaign is expected to take 50-60 days and reach a planned total depth of an estimated 3 700 metres.
“Pleasingly, the results of the play opening Mukuyu-1 / ST-1 campaign de-risks our exploration efforts in Zimbabwe’s frontier Cabora Bassa Basin, which remains one of Africa’s largest unexplored land-based prospects.
“Through the support and ongoing commitment of shareholders, the company is well positioned to carry out activity associated with Mukuyu-2, having raised AU$35,4 million last quarter through a private placement and Share Purchase Plan (SPP),” he said.
Adding to the excitement of the forthcoming Mukuyu-2 spud date, Mr Macmillan said was the recent completion of the Cabora Bassa 2D seismic data (subsurface resource sound/vibration data) acquisition.
Conducted in partnership with Polaris, Invictus acquired 425 kilometres of additional high-resolution seismic data shot in the east and south of the licence areas in the basin and is currently undergoing processing with Earth Signal.
“Preliminary field processing shows structural closure at multiple target intervals across a number of leads in the Central Fairway and Basin Margin play, which once matured through further analysis have the potential to grow our material prospect portfolio for future drilling activity. Invictus Energy’s commitment to local job creation and community outcomes in the region continues to be outstanding, with more than 100 people employed to carry out activity associated with the survey.
“I’m pleased local communities continue to back the company and its operations and are taking an active interest in the opportunities we are creating in their region.”
“This exciting next chapter of our Cabora Bassa Basin journey is not only exciting for shareholders and the company, but also creating shared prosperity and opportunity from natural resource development that has potential to transform the nation and sub-Saharan Africa’s energy needs of the future,” he said.
Meanwhile, an evaluation of technical data from the results of Mukuyu-1 exploration drilling confirmed that Zimbabwe holds substantial oil and gas reserves parallel to recent discoveries in regional countries such as Namibia and Uganda, which however had to drill several hundreds of holes before success.
In 1974, Namibia commenced drilling and did close to 100 dry holes before hitting the first “sweet spot”. It is envisaged that the first benefits from commercial production of the basin are likely to come from natural gas. A gas power station can be built very quickly and natural gas needs little processing to be used as a power station fuel. Natural gas can be used as a prime feedstock for ammonia-based fertilisers, and this is why there is keen interest in a pipeline from Muzarabani to Kwekwe.
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