Business Reporter

Invictus Energy, the Australia Stock Exchange (ASX) listed firm exploring for oil and gas in Muzarabani, is on course to start the second exploration phase to determine the quantity of gas and oil that could be found on the Muzarabani basin.

A source within the company said the second exploration phase was expected to commence next month with the company having already bought the Seismic equipment to be used for the project.

According to the same source, the Seismic equipment is expected to arrive in Durban, South Africa, tomorrow and then transported to Zimbabwe by road. The equipment is expected at Beitbridge before the end of this month.

Invictus Energy is also expected to pour an additional US$30 million towards the second exploration phase. After the exploration phase, the company is expected to start the drilling of test wells for gas and oil projects in March next year.

The source added that Invictus had made extensive progress reinterpreting data collected by Mobil in the mid-90s and the results of the independent studies have confirmed huge potential for the existence of oil and gas in Muzarabani, although gas deposits are relatively higher than oil. Mobil failed to do commercial exploration of gas in the early 1990s, because it was not profitable at that time to do so.

Successful discovery of oil or gas in Muzarabani will represent a huge achievement for the country, often plagued by budget deficits and resource constraints to fund development and key infrastructure projects. If both oil and gas are found in Muzarabani, the Government would be expected to get a share of the production, usually 50-70 percent of the output or proceeds thereof, once the investor has recouped their investment.

Apart from exports and the tremendous job creation potential of the project, the Muzarabani oil and gas project would also bring about a cocktail of downstream benefits in the form of new industries, energy security infrastructure development. Oil and gas resources are a principal source of public revenues and national wealth for the governments of net oil-exporting countries.

As a major source of wealth and energy in Africa and entire world, oil and gas resources are critical for economic growth and development.