The Sunday Mail
Ishemunyoro Chingwere
AUSTRALIA Stock Exchange (ASX)-listed miner, Invictus Energy Ltd, has said the Muzarabani oil and gas project is a high risk endeavour in the absence of conclusive exploratory results, but preliminary work has convinced the miner to soldier on.
The potential of the prospect was upgraded in July after a series of desktop exploratory work and an independent audit showed that there is a strong case for up to 1,3 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), or alternatively, an estimated resource of 206 billion litres of oil.
The desktop work also estimated the prospect to contain 8,2 Tcf plus 250 million barrels of conventional gas, thus making a compelling case for investment and for which Invictus has now decided to inject between US$15 million to US$20 million in the sinking of a 3, 5 to 4 kilometre well that will conclusively quantify the potential of the fields.
To this end, the miner has, over the last few weeks, engaged the stakeholders in Muzarabani, who include Government departments and the local leadership as a precursor to the drawing up of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) before the commencement of work on the ground.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail Business after meeting Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando on Thursday, Geo Associates (Pvt) Ltd chief executive officer Mr Simbarashe Chimbodza said, there is excitement in the community and all factors point to the granting of the EIA.
Geo Associates (Pvt) Ltd are the license holders, under Special Grant 4571, to the Muzarabani oil and gas project and are owned by Invictus Energy Ltd, 80 percent with the remaining 20 percent in the hands of a company owned by Mr Chimbodza. Mr Chimbodza highlighted that although the prospect remains high risk, evidence from work done so far shows that the case for investment is compelling and the decision should continue.
Mr Chimbodza described the sinking of the well as a crunch stage and also noted that this will be carried out in the first quarter of 2020, but the actual sinking will be preceded by a seismic aerial survey on the exact location of the borehole to be drilled.
“When you do exploration, you go through ‘stop, go decisions’ at every stage,” said Mr Chimbodza.
“These ‘stop, go decisions’ are premised on the information and data that you are gather, you then interrogate that information, to say, are we to proceed or stop. So, what we have done to date, all the information that we have been getting from our interpretation, has been indicating that we need to proceed with this project.
“In our case, we are happy to say we are now at a crunch stage, where we need to do this three and half to four kilometres well, which will be the taste of the pudding,” he said.
Invictus Energy technical director Mr Brent Barber, said oil exploration in its nature is a very high risk endeavour, which if not done properly, could disappoint. Although, for obvious reasons, he is not in a position to state what is to be expected from the fields, Mr Barber said he is confident of positive results.
“We will not know, for certain, if anything is there until we sink in a borehole,” said Mr Barber.
“What we have done at the moment is to go through all the data that is available and reinterpret all the data. Re-interpret all the surface geology . . . at the moment it is all hypothetical and its high risk. The chances of success? I am a geologist and I am always optimistic, but I can not put a figure on that. But, for the benefit of the nation, we are hoping for success.
“It is suffice to say that, our work, so far, gives us confidence to go to the next stage of sinking a well at a cost of over US$15 million as the Minister highlighted. This is what oil exploration globally, is about. It is a very high risk endeavour and that is the sought of money you need to drill holes to start to commence the discovery and then the development of the fields.
“In a nutshell, all work we have been doing indicates that it is promising,” he said.
