Capital raise puts Invictus in ‘excellent’ position: CEO
A SUCCESSFUL US$6,2 million capital raise by Invictus has put the company in an “excellent” position to complete a seismic acquisition programme, its chief executive Scott Macmillan has said.
Invictus recently completed an oversubscribed AUS$8 million (US$6 235 500,04) capital raise via a share placement to new and existing institutional and sophisticated investors.
This allowed it to award a seismic acquisition contract to Canadian firm Polaris Natural Resources Inc for the former’s 2D seismic programme in the Cabora Bassa basin at the end of the quarter. Polaris is Canada’s long-standing seismic company.
“This has been an excellent quarter for the company which has seen us complete several significant milestones and build on our strong foundations,” Macmillan said in a statement accompanying the company’s first quarter report released yesterday.
“The completion of a strongly-supported capital raise has put the company in an excellent position to complete our upcoming seismic acquisition program which will commence in Q2 and then lead to an eagerly awaited high impact basin opening drilling campaign.”
Invictus intends to have Polaris conduct, process and interpret a minimum of 400-line kilometres of 2D seismic programme in order to refine the Muzarabani-1 drilling location and well path and identify additional prospects for the upcoming drilling campaign.
Polaris is expected to begin mobilising the seismic equipment and personnel to Harare in the coming weeks in preparation for the acquisition before deploying to the field and commencing data acquisition in the second quarter.
“The company is also pleased to have Barry Meikle join the team as seismic project manager. Barry is based in Zimbabwe and has extensive experience in onshore seismic acquisition projects in PNG with Total and Interoil, and project management expertise with oilfield service companies in east Africa and is a valuable addition to the Invictus team,” Macmillan said.
Since late 2018, Invictus has been struggling to launch the Cabora Bassa project, which encompasses the Muzarabani Prospect believed to have multi-trillion cubic feet worth of liquids and rich in conventional gas-condensate.
However, recent developments such as the petroleum exploration development and production agreement (PEDPA) with the government are finally moving the project forward.
“The execution of the PEPDA with the Republic of Zimbabwe puts in place the necessary framework to rapidly develop the Cabora Bassa project on exploration success and provide a 25-year production licence,” Macmillan said.
“We look forward to commencing the seismic acquisition campaign in the coming quarter which will unlock additional value for the company and delineate the optimal drilling location to test the world class Muzarabani prospect.”
The PEDPA also provides for special economic zone status for the Cabora Bassa project which will facilitate a host of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives over the life of the project. These include legal and fiscal stability, offshore banking, zero capital gains tax and tax holiday periods and 15% corporate rate thereafter.
Macmillan said funds from the capital raise would enable Invictus to accelerate the company’s exploration campaign throughout the remainder of this year.
NewsDay