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Business Reporter

AUSTRALIA oil and gas exploration firm, Invictus Energy, says it has identified 13 potential hydro-carbon-bearing zones across the Pebbly Arkose and Upper Angwa formations that could create a new petroleum province in northern Zimbabwe.

Invictus is on a mission to explore for oil and gas in the Muzarabani area and recently concluded drilling operations at Mukuyu-ST1, which it described as a tremendous success.

The Invictus oil rig in Muzarabani

In a trading update on Monday, managing director Mr Scott Macmillan said the Mukuyu-1 and ST1 drilling campaign has been a great success resulting in the identification of 13 potential hydrocarbon-bearing zones across, which are promising.

The firm is still interpreting all the data collected, with results to be integrated into the seismic data and basin models to guide future well locations and exploration prospect selection.

“Significantly, a combined 225-metres of gross potential hydrocarbon bearing zones have been identified in the primary target Upper Angwa, which still contains a deeper untested potential,” he said.

“This is an outstanding result and virtually unprecedented for the first well in a frontier basin, establishing a new petroleum province and substantially de-risking the company’s wider acreage in the Cabora Bassa Basin.”

Recently, the Australian independent energy explorer indicated that although it has concluded drilling operations at Mukuyu-ST1, technical challenges forced operations to be halted as plant equipment has been placed under maintenance and upgrades prior to recommencing drilling.

Anticipation is high that Invictus will announce a commercial discovery of either or both oil and gas after initial tests indicated the presence of a working hydrocarbon system in the well.

Soon after drilling Mukuyu 1, a second well, the Baobab, will be sunk down to 1.5 km, with both exercises set to give a better idea of the full extent of the reserves in the Muzarabani prospect following the collection of more than 800 km of seismic data in 2021.

Initial exploration work has been promising, and points to a significant resource, setting Zimbabwe on course to becoming an oil and gas-producing nation.

In 2020, the 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.