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Senior Business Reporter
AUSTRALIAN independent energy explorer, Invictus Energy, which is searching for oil and gas in the Muzarabani area north of Zimbabwe says it has concluded drilling operations at Mukuyu-ST1, describing the drilling campaign as a tremendous success.
However, due to technical challenges, operations have been halted as plant equipment has been placed under maintenance and upgrades prior to recommencing drilling.
Operations will resume either at Mukuyu-2 or Baobab-1 this year following sourcing of required long leads and tendering of well services and equipment, it said in a statement.
In an update on Tuesday, managing director, Mr Scott Macmillan, said despite facing numerous operational hurdles they are encouraged by current preliminary results.
“We have achieved a fantastic result from the Mukuyu-1 and sidetrack well, which has multiple gas zones and potentially liquid hydrocarbon bearing intervals interpreted from wireline logs and drilling,” he said.
“We have a proven hydrocarbon system in the Cabora Bassa Basin as evidenced from significantly elevated gas shows and fluorescence during drilling and confirmed the presence of rich source rock, seal, reservoir, trap and timing.”
Whilst it has been frustrated with the numerous operational challenges encountered and not being able to obtain a fluid sample, which would have enabled the formal declaration of a discovery, Invictus said it still achieved a hugely significant result from the first well in the basin, which has substantially de-risked its dominant acreage position and established a new petroleum province.
“We have gathered a high-quality dataset across the Mukuyu-1 and sidetrack well, which will now be integrated with the existing seismic data to calibrate and refine our interpretation and plan for the appraisal of Mukuyu as well as additional prospects in the basin,” said the company.
Mr Macmillan revealed that Invictus and Exalo Drilling have executed a contract amendment for Rig 202 to remain in the Cabora Bassa Basin for up to 12 months to enable the drilling of future wells in the basin.
“The highly encouraging results from the initial Mukuyu-1 and side-track well have provided the company with the confidence to keep Rig 202 warm stacked at the Mukuyu-1 location whilst preparations are made for the future drilling campaign for at least one firm well in 2023, with further wells to be agreed,” he said.
He added that the contract amendment executed with Exalo underpins Invictus’ confidence in the hydrocarbon prospectivity of the basin and will result in substantial time and cost savings to the firm compared to demobilising and remobilising the rig to and from East Africa for future drilling.
“Furthermore, the stacking of the rig at Mukuyu-1 will allow Exalo to perform maintenance and upgrades of the rig prior to recommencing drilling of either Mukuyu-2 or Baobab-1 in 2023 whilst the company sources necessary long leads, conducts tendering for well services and integrates the substantial information gathered into the geological model to determine future drilling locations,” said Mr Macmillan.
He said the firm has gained a deeper understanding of the subsurface geology and valuable experience in drilling of the Cabora Bassa Basin, which will allow it to optimise plans, drilling fluids, equipment and services required for future campaigns.
“Overall, the drilling campaign and Mukuyu-1 and sidetrack well have been a tremendous success,” added Mr Macmillan.
In 2020, the Zimbabwe government classified the Muzarabani project as one of the priority development projects, which can provide a significant economic benefit to the economy in pursuit of an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
Online Reporter