Page 9 - AfrOil Week 35 2022

AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil

Invictus said that it remains open to strategic the resource potential of the Cabora Bassa
partnerships in the future. Basin,” said Invictus’ managing director Scott
The Mukuyu-1 well will take up $10mn of the Macmillan. “Through the completion of this
budget, the Baobab-1 well $13.5m and costs of capital raise, in conjunction with our existing
the offer $1.5mn. The Exalo Rig 202 has already cash balance, we are funded for the upcoming
been mobilised at Mukuyu-1, which will be exploration campaign, which will test Africa’s
spudded in early September and will take 45-60 largest undrilled onshore oil and gas prospect in
days to drill. Meanwhile, civil works have com- Mukuyu, and a potentially play opening pros-
menced at the Baobab-1 wellsite to ensure that pect in Baobab, which displays similarities to the
drilling can follow immediately after the com- prolific discoveries in the East Africa Rift Sys-
pletion of Mukuyu-1. tem. I would also like to thank existing share-
Mukuyu, formerly known as Muzarabani, is holders that participated in the placement for
the larger of the two fields within SG 4571, Invic- their continued support, and multiple Austral-
tus’ original licence area in Zimbabwe. It may ian and international institutional investors who
hold 20 trillion cubic feet (566.4bn cubic metres) continue to back our Cabora Bassa project.” ™
of natural gas and 845mn barrels of gas con-
densate, according to an updated independent
report drawn up by ERCE, a UK-based energy
consultancy. An older resource estimate drawn
up by AIM-listed Getech Group speculates that
Msasa, the smaller, may hold 1.05 trillion cubic
feet (29.73 bcm) of gas and 44mn barrels of
condensate.
Invictus recently acquired exploration rights
to two additional licence areas adjacent to SG
4571 – namely, Exclusive Prospecting Orders
1848 and 1849, or EPO 1848 and EPO 1849.
Together with SG 4571, EPO 1848 and EPO
1849 cover “the entire conventional oil and gas
play in the Cabora Bassa basin,” the Australian
company said in a statement dated August 17.
The Baobab prospect lies within this extended
area.
“We are moving into a very exciting period
for Invictus with the drilling of two high-im-
pact exploration wells aimed at unlocking The SG 4571 licence area is in the Cabora Bassa basin (Image: Invictus Energy)

PERFORMANCE
NSAI certifies Ethiopia’s Ogaden

basin gas reserves at 198 bcm

ETHIOPIA ETHIOPIA’S Ministry of Mines and Petro- document is a confirmation certificate of Ethio-
leum received a report on August 26 from the pia’s natural gas volume and economic viability,”
US-based geological consultancy Netherland, he is quoted as saying. “With this certificate, we
Sewell & Associates, Inc (NSAI) confirming the can invite companies with technological, finan-
presence of sizeable natural gas reserves in the cial and investment potential at the international
Ogaden basin. level. It also empowers the government’s bar-
According to the Addis Standard, NSAI gaining power.”
submitted the report to Minister of Mines and The minister also described the certification
Petroleum Takele Uma after wrapping up a four- of the gas reserves as a means of keeping inves-
month study of the basin, which lies in Ethiopia’s tors accountable, saying that it had been known
eastern Somali regional state. for some time that Ethiopia possessed hydrocar-
The report certifies the size of the reserves at bon reserves, though the size of those reserves
7 trillion cubic feet (198.2bn cubic metres), the was undetermined. “I believe it [the certificate]
newspaper said. will also be a good wake-up call to the compa-
Uma said he hoped the report would nies that are holding our wealth captive with
help Ethiopia attract new investment. “This misinformation,” he remarked.

Week 35 01•September•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9