Hosia Mviringi
A production sharing agreement between the government of Zimbabwe and Geo-Associates (Pvt) Ltd for the Muzarabani Oil and Gas Project was signed in Harare March 26 2021.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who oversaw the signing of the Petroleum Exploration and Development Production Agreement (PEDPA) between the Government of Zimbabwe and Geo-Associates (Pvt) Ltd, shared encouraging projections of the future.
Geo-Associates is a joint venture between One Gas Resources and Invictus Energy, an Australian Stock Exchange listed company.
President Mnangagwa said he was delighted to be informed that Geo-Associates will immediately commence work on the first phase of the project which include sinking of two exploration wells at an estimated cost of US$30million.
“The signing of this agreement represents major strides in our efforts to tap into our oil and gas deposits, which is a new territory in the country mining sector.
The untapped oil and gas deposits present huge, unique and competitive investment opportunities, given that the industry has various potential downstream linkages”, said President Mnangagwa.
Geo-Associates company will explore and mine for gas and oil in the Muzarabani and Mbire districts of Mashonaland Central Province under Special grant number 4571.
The project is expected to completely change the face of business in Mashonaland Central as well as positively impact the Provincial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in line with the government thrust on devolution.
Downstream industries such as petroleum retail and distribution, fertilizers manufacture, electricity generation, liquid petroleum gas (LPG) production, and petrochemicals, will flourish and help boost the fortunes of the country’s economy in the short to medium term.
The Muzarabani oil and gas project began in 2016 with the awarding of a special grant to Geo-Associates. A re-evaluation of legacy geological and geophysical data on the merits of the project has seen the company spend US$4million to date and a total of ninety man-hours of effort.
The Muzarabani prospect has been independently estimated to host up to 8.2trillion cubic feet, and 247million barrels of conventional gas condensate (light oil).
It, therefore, becomes one of the largest conventional oil and gas investment targets globally.
This project is expected to contribute immensely to the attainment of the country’s ambitious target of a US$12billion mining sector economy by 2023 under NDS1.
Zimbabwe is endowed with abundant investment opportunities in such areas as agriculture, energy and tourism, manufacturing and the services sector.
The signing of this agreement is testimony to Zimbabwe’s commitment to the ease and cost of doing business reforms as envisaged under the National Development Strategy 1 blueprint.
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