Invictus Energy, an Australian company has signed an agreement with EXALO for a drilling assignment set for June.
Romania-headquartered Exalo Drilling SA, has been given a huge task, which could determine the future of Invictus Energy that is hoping for a game-changing gas or oil find at the Muzarabani-based Cabora Bassa oilfields.
Results of the drilling assignment will also have a huge bearing on Zimbabwe’s future. Exalo has agreed to drill Invictus’ first of two US$20 million test wells at the oilfields.
In a statement last week, Invictus expressed its confidence that there were high chances that massive oil deposits in Zimbabwe’s Zambezi Valley region.
Invictus said a binding drilling rig contract with Exalo has been inked. Said the company in a shareholder update:
Invictus is pleased to confirm it has executed a binding drilling rig contract with Exalo Drilling South Africa to drill the Muzarabani-1 exploration well and an option for an additional exploration well for the basin opening drilling campaign, scheduled to commence in June 2022.
It has been a long journey for Invictus, which came to the Zimbabwean scene in 2015, when talk of oil or gas reserves in Zimbabwe resurfaced.
Mobil, the global oil giant, had explored, and abandoned the Zambezi Valley in the 1990s, but after collecting vital data, now worth about US$3 million, it attracted Scott Macmillan, the Invictus chief executive officer, to try his luck.
Macmillan, a Mobil veteran, last week said he had finalised processing the Cabora Bassa 2D Seismic Survey, with data interpretation underway.
But early signals have revealed “multiple trapping geometries and a target rich hydrocarbon environment”.
Invictus has identified several potential well locations for the Muzarabani-1 well and “is maturing additional prospects identified from the CB21 survey for a second well to be drilled in the upcoming campaign.
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