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AfrOil POLICY AfrOil
ASX-listed Invictus Energy announced recently the arrival of a rig to begin drilling for natural gas at Mukuyu-1, the site of its first well at Spe- cial Grant (SG) 4571, a block in the Cabora Bassa basin. In July, the company upgraded the licence area’s prospective resource estimate to 20 trillion cubic feet (566.4bn cubic metres) of gas and 845 mm bbl of gas condensate.
If the campaign leads to a commercial dis- covery and development, SG 4571 would be the first gas-bearing site in the country.
The Mukuyu field is close to the border with Mozambique, where an Islamist insurgency broke out in October 2017, even as several inter- national oil companies (IOCs) pushed forward with efforts to develop natural gas fields off the coast of that country’s northernmost Cabo Del- gado province.
The militants have demanded that the province receive a larger share of benefit from the development of gas and other resources in their area, such as rubies, graphite and gold. Some 4,000 people are reported to have died in the conflict, while almost 800,000 have been displaced.
A discovery of alluvial diamonds at Marange in eastern Zimbabwe in 2006 attracted hundreds of thousands of fortune seekers, some from as far away as Nigeria and Lebanon. Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimates that 200 people died in
The SG 4571 licence area is in the Cabora Bassa basin (Image: Invictus Energy)
clashes between rival gangs over the gems. While ordinary people were involved in mining and selling of the mineral, some influ- ential figures were involved too. Zimbabwe’s then-President Robert Mugabe said in March 2016 that $15bn worth of diamonds had been
looted from Marange. ™ PROJECTS & COMPANIES
BP, Kosmos expect GTA block to begin production on schedule in H2-2023
SENEGAL/MAURITANIA
BP and Kosmos Energy (US) are reportedly set to launch natural gas and LNG production at the Greater Tortue/Ahmeyim (GTA) block offshore Senegal and Mauritania on schedule in the second half of next year, despite delays in the construction of its floating production, storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessel.
Kosmos, a non-operating partner in the pro- ject, reported on August 8 that Phase 1 opera- tions at GTA were “[continuing] to make good progress” and that preparations for the start of production were more than 80% complete as of the end of June. In a statement on its perfor- mance in the second quarter of 2022, it reported that it had successfully drilled two of the four wells needed to begin extracting gas from the block and had already spudded the third.
The company also noted that work on marine infrastructure was moving forward, as subsea equipment was beginning to arrive in the region and installation of an export pipeline was under- way. Meanwhile, all 21 of the caissons needed for
The SG 4571 licence area is in the Cabora Bassa basin (Image: Kosmos Energy)
the offshore gas hub have been installed, while the process of installing the pilings is nearly complete and the living quarters module is en route to the site of the hub.
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