The drilling of maiden exploration well in Zimbabwe’s Cabora Bassa basin and subsequent results have the potential to be transformative for Invictus Energy.

The Mukuyu-1 well, and subsequent sidetrack, proved a working petroleum system, has validated the geological and geophysical modelling and substantially has de-risked the future exploration in the basin.

Mukuyu-1 ST1 has identified 13 potential hydrocarbon bearing zones, with 225m of gross potential hydrocarbon bearing zones also identified in the primary Upper Angwa target.

Whilst operational challenges and tool failures have prevented Invictuas Energy from acquiring a fluid sample to enable the formal declaration of a discovery, wireline log interpretation calculated porosity of up to 15% and gas saturation of up to 90% in selected potential pay zones in the Upper Angwa and the presence of hydrocarbons (gas-condensate and potentially light oil) in these reservoir intervals have been achieved.

The drill results have shown the Upper Angwa formation is much thicker than pre-drill estimates, which bodes well for future prospectivity, with deeper untested potential in the Upper Angwa, while the Lower Angwa member still yet to be drilled.

The results have also substantially de-risked the company’s wider exploration acreage, where it recently identified an additional 1.2 billion barrels of prospective resources across several prospects.

Typically, achieving these results in a frontier basin takes multiple wells, such as the Albertine Graben in Uganda, which took six wells before a discovery was made. Now more than 2.5 billion barrels of oil have been uncovered in the East African oil play.

The results to date at Mukuyu have provided Invictus with the confidence to amend our contract with Exalo Drilling S.A. and keep Rig 202 for an additional 12 months. Initially, the rig will be warm stacked at Mukuyu-1 to undergo maintenance and upgrades, particularly to the mud system.

In the meantime, preparations are being made for the next phase of exploration programme, with the Company sourcing necessary long leads and carrying out tendering for well services. Allso there need in incorporating the substantial information gathered during the Mukuyu-1 campaign into the geological model to determine future drilling locations.

This analysis will help the company to decide if immediately drill of an appraisal well at Mukuyu, with the aim of proving up a potentially significant resource, or if to test the basin margin play with the previously planned Baobab-1 exploration well.

Invictus Energy is plan to move towards the next phases of exploration and appraisal in the Cabora Bassa basin, as its pleased to have welcomed two new appointments to the board in recent weeks.

Industry veteran John Bentley has been appointed as Non-Executive Chairman of Invictus Energy. John was the CEO of exploration and production at South African oil company Engen Ltd and was later instrumental in the formation of Energy Africa Ltd. Under John’s leadership, Energy Africa grew to have operations in 12 African countries and made several important oil and gas discoveries.

Earlier this month, Invictus also welcomed the appointment of Robin Sutherland as a Non-Executive Director, bringing more than 35 years of extensive African E&P experience to the board. As a specialist geophysicist, he also played a key role in Energy Africa’s hydrocarbon discoveries in the 1990s, which helped lay the foundation for the company’s eventual acquisition by Tullow Oil in 2004.

John then led Tullow’s exploration team through the discovery and appraisal of the Jubilee and TEN fields in Ghana, and the Lokichar Basin in Kenya before becoming Tullow’s General Manager Exploration Africa in 2015. With the appointment of John and Robin to the board, Invictus Energy is well placed for another exciting year in 2023 as we look to uncover further resources in the Cabora Bassa basin and provide future energy security for not only Zimbabwe, but potentially the wider Southern African region.