Invictus forges ahead with Muzarabani oil exploration

Harare (New Ziana) –Australian oil and gas firm, Invictus Energy on Wednesday said it had contracted a Canadian company, Polaris to conduct two-dimensional (2D) seismic exploration at its Muzarabani prospect, as it nears commencing the drilling of exploration wells.

Seismic exploration is the search for commercially viable subsurface deposits of crude oil, natural gas and minerals by the recording, processing, and interpretation of artificially induced shock waves in the earth.

Artificial seismic energy is generated on land by vibratory mechanisms mounted on specialized trucks.

In a statement, Invictus said, Polaris intended to conduct, process, and interpret a minimum of 400 line kilometres of 2D seismic data in order to refine the Mzarabani-1 drilling location and well path.

The exploration is also expected to identify additional prospectivity for the upcoming drilling campaign.

Polaris chief executive officer, Bill Mooney said his company would begin mobilising the seismic equipment and personnel “in the coming weeks.”

“Polaris is very pleased to support Invictus on this world class project. The combination of technologies being employed represents not only the lightest seismic footprint possible, but also allows for very fast and high resolution data acquisition,” he said.

Invictus Managing Director Scott Macmillan said the Muzarabani project was on course.

“Our exploration program is on track, and the significant amount of preparatory work that we have undertaken is paying off. We are using a very experienced contractor and have put in place a very experienced team to run the program.

“The seismic program will enable us to refine the Mzarabani-1 target defined from the existing seismic dataset and help us fill our prospect inventory ahead of our basin opening drilling campaign. We are very excited to get our exploration program underway,” he said.

Macmillan said in line with Zimbabwe’s community empowerment drive, the company remained committed to hiring local and national experts, and to local procurement.

“In keeping with the Company’s strong commitment to community employment, Polaris’s corporate goals are to implement an 85 percent local content policy on all of its operations regarding employment, supplies and consumables. The campaign will involve the training and deployment of approximately 80 local field crew for the seismic acquisition program.”
New Ziana