Invictus reaches key stage in oil, gas search

INVICTUS ENERGY reached a key milestone last week in its search for oil and gas in the north of Zimbabwe, after drilling an exploration well to the targeted depth of 3,7 kilometres, raising bright prospects for potentially transformative commercial discovery.

Oil and gas discovery can become an avenue to attract more foreign investment into the country, drive faster economic growth and development, create direct and indirect employment, provide energy to support economic activities and generate exports.

The Australian firm last week said it had reached the targeted 3,718 kilometres total depth during the exploration drilling at the Mukuyu-2 site in Mbire, Mashonaland Central province, and has since commenced wireline logging (measurement of the size of the oil/gas deposit), by gathering full technical data about the well.

Mukuyu-2 marks the second time Invictus has undertaken exploration well drilling in the north of Zimbabwe, with the earlier exercise at Mukuyu-1 having proved the country was home to a working oil and gas (hydrocarbons) system.

The test-well drilling in September last year, despite the highly encouraging preliminary results, could not be completed after technical glitches that prevented the company from extracting a fluid sample required by Australian regulators to declare a commercial discovery.

“Commercial discovery” means a discovery of petroleum that has been demonstrated to contain petroleum reserves that justify the investment of capital and effort to bring the discovery to production.

Similarly, Invictus managing director Mr Scott McMillan last week said preliminary indications from the evaluation of data gathered during drilling over the last two months strongly supported the possible existence of commercially recoverable gas condensate, which the company is now seeking to evaluate scientifically.

“We have had further encouraging signs from the Mukuyu-2 well since drilling recommenced, with multiple additional zones encountering strong gas shows and fluorescence in the Lower Angwa formation,” Mr McMillan said.

Gas shows relate to gas that rises to the surface, usually detected because it reduces the density of the drilling mud, with associated drilling breaks (reduced drilling mud density) and fluorescence (colour of the drill cuttings under UV light of various wavelengths) in cuttings indicative of the presence of liquid hydrocarbons have been encountered in multiple additional Lower Angwa (geological formation) sandstone reservoirs from 396 metres measured depth to total depth.

“Mukuyu-2 has proved up over a 1 000metre gross interval of hydrocarbon charge through the Upper and Lower Angwa formations across multiple reservoir zones.

“The planned comprehensive wireline logging programme — including (geological) formation pressure and fluid sampling, sidewall cores and checkshot (measurement of travel time of seismic or vibration) wave from source in the surface to the receiver within a well-bore) surveys — will be run with the aim of confirming the presence of moveable hydrocarbons in multiple zones in the Upper and Lower Angwa (geological) formations to declare a discovery.