Page 14 - AfrOil Week 47 2022

AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

This has offered the US chain an opportunity. Sithole told News24 the expansion of the
Farooqui said Circle K and Millat were trying American convenience offering would include a
to build a “very customer-first or guest-driven phased approach with a certain number of stores
experience, where the customer is at the fore- established every year, after an initial rollout of
front.” This could mean offering products people 10 Circle K stores at Puma’s forecourts across
aren’t accustomed to in SA, such as barista-made South Africa.
coffee, freshly baked muffins or breakfast packs “We also want to penetrate Mpumalanga,
for busy mothers taking their children to school. we want to do the same thing in KwaZulu-Na-
“The common thread though is to serve the tal and Cape Town,” Sithole said, adding that
customer first. The average filling station doesn’t Puma Energy believes Circle K will provide a
do that today,” Farooqui was quoted by News24 retail offering that was different to the rest of the
as saying. market.
According to Janet Sithole, Puma Energy’s Convenience retailing was growing in pop-
non-fuels retail manager for Africa, the agree- ularity in SA, Sithole explained, as this format
ment with Circle K was the group’s second with gained even more traction among consumers
a convenience retailer, with OK Express also during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic
present at some of its service stations. when there was limited movement allowed. ™

Invictus extends Mukuyu-1 to 3,923 metres

ZIMBABWE AUSTRALIA’S Invictus Energy reported on hydrocarbon system at Mukuyu. The field may
November 24 that it had succeeded in deepen- hold 20 trillion cubic feet (566.4bn cubic metres)
ing Mukuyu-1, its first exploration well at the SG of natural gas and 845mn barrels of gas con-
4571 licence area in Zimbabwe, to a measured densate, according to an updated independent
depth (MD) of 3,923 metres and had continued report drawn up by ERCE, a UK-based energy
to encounter additional shows of natural gas consultancy.
while doing so. Mukuyu, formerly known as Muzarabani, is
In a stock exchange statement, Invictus said it the larger of the two fields within the SG 4571
had encountered “multiple reservoir units with licence area. An older resource estimate drawn
elevated gas shows and fluorescence until total up by AIM-listed Getech Group speculates that
depth (TD)” during the additional drilling work. Msasa, the smaller, may hold 1.05 tcf (29.73
This demonstrates that the Upper Angwa for- bcm) of gas and 44mn barrels of condensate.
mation has more potential than expected over Invictus recently acquired exploration rights
a gross interval of 900 metres, which is a good to two additional licence areas adjacent to SG
sign of future prospectivity in the basin, it noted. 4571 – namely, Exclusive Prospecting Orders
The company went on to say that it had 1848 and 1849, or EPO 1848 and EPO 1849.
prepared the borehole to run wireline logs. It Together with SG 4571, EPO 1848 and EPO
also stated, though, that it had not been able to 1849 cover “the entire conventional oil and gas
achieve this goal because of deteriorating con- play in the Cabora Bassa basin,” the Australian
ditions that prevented it from passing the rele- company said in a statement dated August 17. ™
vant tools below a depth of approximately 3,030
metres MD, where the primary fluid sampling
targets are situated. Additionally, it reported
that logging the shallower sections of the well
was inadvisable because of the high risks of los-
ing tools and failing to meet the objectives of the
drilling programme.
As such, it said, the company has opted
to drill a sidetrack well in order to obtain a
fluid sample and complete the evaluation of
Mukuyu-1. This sidetrack well, Mukuyu-1 ST-1,
will be sunk to a TD of about 3,500 metres.
“Results to date have been extremely encour-
aging and we plan to suspend the sidetrack
well for future testing,” said Scott Macmillan,
Invictus’ managing director. “We anticipate the
remaining activities will require a further 12 to
18 days, and we look forward to providing fur-
ther updates in coming weeks.”
The Australian company recently reported
that it had found evidence of a working Mukuyu-1 and proposed Mukuyu-1 sidetrack trajectories (Image: Invictus Energy)

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 47 24•November•2022