Special Report: The way is now clear for Invictus to start exploration at its Cabora Bassa gas project in Zimbabwe after securing key environmental approvals.
Approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and the Environmental Management Plan wraps up the permitting requirements for the project, allowing the company to kick off seismic acquisition and exploration drilling.
Invictus Energy (ASX:IVZ) managing director Scott Macmillan says the receipt of the EIA licence is a significant milestone for Cabora Bassa and marks the progression from desktop studies to on-ground activity.
“Although there have been some delays experienced due to COVID-19 enforced restrictions in country, the company has made excellent progress recently having secured our EIA, investment licence and tenure extension in the last week,” he added.
“We continue to advance negotiations for the Production Sharing Agreement with the Republic of Zimbabwe through the Technical Committee and its legal representatives and will provide further details as appropriate.”
The full EIA included field surveys and baseline measurements of hydrology, ecology, environmental, archaeological, hydrogeological and soil surveys. It also included socioeconomic and community consultations with key project stakeholders, local leaders, relevant government ministries and government extension offices.
A sleeping gas giant
The Cabora Bassa project has the potential to host multi-trillion cubic feet of gas that could alleviate the energy shortages that are hampering industry and economic growth in South Africa.
It hosts the Mzarabani prospect that was defined from a robust dataset acquired by Mobil in the early 1990s.
Highlighting the strong interest in its gas, the company has already reached two supply deals covering maximum gas supply of 730 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas, which represents just a small slice of the project’s gas potential.
The most recent is a non-binding MoU with Tatanga Energy to jointly investigate the economic and commercial viability of supplying gas to Tatanga’s proposed 500-megawatt (MW) plant that will supply electricity to the national grid and captive clients in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique.
Minimum gas supply covered by the MoU is about 11Bcf per year and could be increased to about 36.5Bcf per annum.
Invictus also previously secured an MoU to supply Sable Chemical Industries with 70 million cubic feet of gas per day for a 20-year period to replace imported ammonia for the production of fertiliser.
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