Page 15 - AfrOil Week 12 2022

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

“We expect the rise of a new breed of agropre-
neurs who will add value to farming and make
the nation self-sufficient in food production,”
Buhari said.
According to the billionaire Dangote, the
plant will not only help Nigeria become self-suf-
ficient but will also give it the spare capacity
to export fertiliser to rest of the continent and
around the world.
Fertiliser prices have risen significantly since
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an
invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Russia is
the world’s leading exporter of fertiliser mate-
rials in value terms, followed by China and
Canada. African importers are likely to see sig-
nificant cost increases when buying fertiliser.
According to South African economist Second phase of Dangote Fertiliser plant (Photo: Dangote Group)
Wandile Sihlobo, the war could continue to push
fertiliser prices higher, even though the market article for The Conversation. “The generally
has already seen a significant spike over the last higher commodity prices – specifically, [for]
18 months. grains and oilseeds – provided financial flexibil-
“In some cases – for example, in ammo- ity to absorb some of these costs, but not fully.
nia – prices rose by 260% between December The Russia-Ukraine war will now be an added
2020 and December 2021,” Sihlobo said in an upside risk on prices for farmers.” ™

Invictus inches closer to drilling

first exploration well in Zimbabwe

ZIMBABWE INVICTUS Energy, an independent upstream
gas company listed on the Australian Securities
Exchange (ASX), is readying itself for the arrival
of a rig in Zimbabwe and preparing to drill
a natural gas exploration well in June or July,
state-controlled daily The Herald reports.
Speaking at a meeting with local commu-
nity leaders and ministers at the project site in
Muzarabani on Monday (March 21), Invictus’
Managing Director Scott MacMillan said that
the processed data indicates that the field may be
one of the largest undrilled structures in Africa.
He also noted that the rig that has been con-
tracted for the campaign is still in Tanzania
but is expected to arrive in Zimbabwe in May.
The company is scheduled to spud the first well
under its two-well exploration drilling pro-
gramme in June or July, he said.
“We selected sites for two wells, one 4 km Invictus is due to spud the Muzarabani-1 well in June of this year (Image: Invictus)
deep and the second 2 km deep, which will be
drilled at the cost of $25mn,” MacMillan stated. that the acreage holds up to 8.2 trillion cubic
“We contracted a rigger [that] is currently in feet (232.2bn cubic metres) of natural gas and
Tanzania. The rig will be mobilised in May this around 250mn barrels of gas condensate.
year and brought to the country. We should be Invictus is not the first company to look
able to start drilling between June and July.” for hydrocarbons in this part of Africa. Mobil
Invictus holds a licence for a block known (US) explored the area in the 1990s, prior to its
as Special Grant 4571 in the Cabora Bassa merger with Exxon, but backed out after con-
basin in Zimbabwe’s northeastern Mashonal- cluding that its acreage contained more gas than
and Central province. The company estimates oil.

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