Invictus oil, gas licence renewed for another 3 years

THE Government has renewed, for an additional three years, Invictus Energy’s Special Grant (SG) to explore oil and gas in Muzarabani and Mbire Districts, Mashonaland Central Province, north of Zimbabwe.

Invictus, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and has been searching for gas and oil in the Cabora Bassa Basin, north of Zimbabwe, in December last year announced gas discovery at its Mukuyu-2 exploration well in Mbire districts.

The discovery affirmed the country’s potential as one of the world’s largest future producers of gas.

This followed the announcements by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development together with Invictus shareholder GeoAssociates of the discovery of substantial moveable hydrocarbons in the Upper and Lower Angwa geological zone of the Mukuyu-2 exploration well.

The discovery of gas presents limitless economic opportunities for the country including; energy security, improved export earnings, job creation, alternative source of Government revenue, faster economic growth and development of downstream industries, among other potential benefits.

GeoAssociates is the licence holder of SG 4571 and holds 80 percent stake in the oil and gas project, while the balance is owned by indigenous group, One Gas Resources.

Invictus said in a statement that its SG 4571 licence was renewed for a further three years, running up to June 2027, to allow for continued oil and gas exploration in the Cabora Bassa Basin.

“GeoAssociates has received notification that its application to extend the tenure of the SG 4571 licence for a further three years has been approved by the Mining Affairs Board.

“This will be followed by publication in the Government Gazette,” said Invictus.

The company plans to undertake a comprehensive work programme for the third three-year exploration period including 3D seismic acquisition and additional exploration/appraisal drilling.

Invictus can apply for a production special grant licence at any stage following the discovery at Mukuyu-2. The firm’s basin opening drilling at Mukuyu-1, for which liquid samples could not be collected, as per Invictus listings requirements, due to a technical fault was eventually declared a discovery.

Invictus recently said it was nearing a Petroleum Production Sharing Agreement with Mutapa Investment Fund, a 10 percent shareholder in the project, which will entitle the State to 40 percent of the oil/gas extracted.

Meanwhile, Invictus in April this year announced that it had concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dallaglio Investments and Himoinsa Southern Africa for a proposed gas-to-power project to supply electricity to Eureka Gold Mine in Guruve, Mashonaland Central Province.

This follows an earlier gas sale MoU for a 500 megawatts (MW) gas-to-power project Invictus Energy and One Gas resources recently executed with Mbuyu Energy, a Zimbabwean consortium led by independent power producer developer Tatanga Energy.

The latest proposed power generation plant and equipment will be provided by Himoinsa with a notional capacity of 12MW with the ability to increase the plant capacity size up to 50MW.

The Eureka Gold project is situated 50km south of the Mukuyu gas field.

This follows the announcement in December last year of the discovery of one condensate gas at the Mukuyu-2 exploration site in Mbire.

At present, Zimbabwe faces an acute shortage of electricity which is normally managed through many hours of rationed supply, which adversely impacts activities across the economy.

Early last year, the Government completed the 600MW extension of Hwange Power Station’s generation capacity as part of several initiatives authorities are pursuing to end power shortages in the country.

The El Nino weather phenomenon which has hit Zimbabwe and some parts of Southern Africa in the 2023/2024 rainy season, has caused a further decline in water available for power generation at Kariba, which is Zimbabwe’s second-largest power plant after Hwange Power Station.-herald