The competition in the African oil and gas market will heat up even more as Zimbabwe discovers large oil and gas reserves in the northeastern part of the country, according to a statement.
This discovery is expected to earn the country extra income and open other revenue, which will lead to economic growth and development.
The confirmation of hydrocarbons in Zimbabwe gives extra sources of energy to Zimbabwe and opens the door to massive economic growth and development through the emergence of downstream industries, new job creation and growth in export earnings and Government revenue.
“The development will increase the options for frontier basins and emerging producers in the continent for investors. Companies would like to have a first grip if the discoveries are economical,” Etulan Adu, an oil and gas production engineer told BusinessDay.
In 1974, Namibia commenced drilling and did nearly 100 dry holes before hitting the first “sweet spot”.
Geo-Associates, Invictus Energy’s 20 percent local shareholding partner, announced last week that the identified zones contain elevated gas shows (surface gas) with the saturation of up to 90 percent.
“To this end, we are extremely buoyed by the positive results from our first Mukuyu-1 well on the project and in Zimbabwe,” said Paul Chimbodza, managing director, Geo Associates said in the statement.
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Large natural gas and oil reserves have now been confirmed in north-east Zimbabwe, although technical glitches meant Australian firm Invictus could not extract a fluid sample to fulfil regulatory requirements in order to declare a commercial discovery.
But Invictus, which drilled this first hole in four months, is now committed to keeping the drilling rig in Zimbabwe for at least another 12 months to drill more holes. The company has extended the contracts of all staff and will keep drilling to get the confirmation samples it now needs to formally declare a commercial strike.
Invictus Energy has reportedly identified 13 potential hydro-carbon-bearing zones at its Mukuyu-1 well in the Cabora Bassa Basin in Mbire District in Mashonaland Central where the company is searching for gas and oil.
Evaluation of technical data from results of recent exploration drilling has confirmed that the country holds substantial oil and gas reserves similar to recent discoveries in regional countries such as Namibia and Uganda, which however had to drill several hundreds of holes before success.
Early this month, Invictus announced fluid samples were not obtainable at the Mukuyu-1 well due to technical and operational issues experienced at the site.
“We encountered a total of 13 hydrocarbon bearing zones with a combined depth of 225 metres in this first well ever drilled in Zimbabwe. Rock porosity in the hydrocarbon zones ranges from 15 to 20 percent.
Chimbodza also said that the well indicated deeper potential and untested hydrocarbons below the final well depth of 3 923 metres, giving more potential hydrocarbons at depth.
“The well test-work showed fluorescence, which is an indicator of liquid hydrocarbons,” he said, adding that they could not complete downhole wireline logging (testing instruments) as the well conditions below 3 000m were not favourable and thus they risked losing the wireline logging equipment in the hole.”
“We decided and successfully drilled a clean Side-track well from 3 618m to 3 923m, which Again confirmed the presence of gas and liquid hydrocarbons as shown by fluorescence tests.”
