An Australian company, Invictus Energy Limited has announced that the ongoing basin modelling study and geochemical studies confirm the oil potential of the Cabora Bassa Basin in the north of Zimbabwe.
Invictus says preliminary gravity data reprocessing also confirms the shallow basement trend associated with the massive Mzarabani anticline and identifies further leads.
“The results of our ongoing technical work are extremely encouraging and is enhancing our understanding of the potential of our acreage in the Cabora Bassa Basin,” Invictus Managing Director Scott Macmillan said in the announcement. “The basin modelling and source rock characterisation is one of the key pieces of work that significantly de-risks the charge timing and availability to the Mzarabani Prospect and the wider basin as well.”
“In addition, new processing techniques applied to the raw datasets that were not available 25 years ago are beginning to show additional structural detail in the basin that was not previously possible as indicated by the preliminary gravity processing results.”
Oil potential results come after Invictus substituted the McKenzie Model, which was first explored by Mobil over 20 years, with the Basin Model.
“The new Basin Model concludes that the source rock within the primary target of the Mzarabani Prospect, the Upper Angwa Alternations Member, is within the oil and wet gas window present day on the flanks of the basin, and has undergone active hydrocarbon generation post trap formation from the source kitchen within the Mzarabani fetch area,” Invictus says in the announcement.
“Previous Mobil work assumed the strict and now outdated ‘McKenzie Model’, which results in an overestimation of the regional thermal gradient. This, therefore, led to higher modelled maturities and the conclusion that the hydrocarbon phase was more likely to be gas than oil.”
“However, the current Basin Model demonstrates that the Mzarabani Prospect may lie within both the light oil generation window (at the crest of the structure) and the wet-gas generation window (on the flanks of the structure) due to size of the structure and significant vertical relief,” Invictus goes on.
Invictus Energy Ltd is an oil and gas exploration company focused on energy resources in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Our technical work is continuing on this exciting project and we look forward to updating the market on our progress in due course as our work program delivers results,” Macmillan said.