Feb 20, 2025 (The Herald/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
The steady progress being made in the exploration and exploitation of what is now known to be a very large natural gas field in Zimbabwe's Cabora Basa Basin reached another milestone recently with the necessary approvals for the environmental and social impact assessment for Invictus Energy.
This allows Invictus to start pilot gas production at the Mukuyu field section and start earning income from the find. The initial pilot production is to supply gas to a new power station at Eureka Gold Mine, which is about 60km to the gas field and so an ideal starting point for commercial exploitation.
This would be Zimbabwe's first gas power station. No details have been given as to whether the pilot power station would be at the mine, so a short gas pipeline would be required, or whether it will be on the Mukuyu field with the necessary electricity grid extension to connect to the mine.
Presumably this is still being worked out by Invictus, Dallaglio who is Eureka's owner, and Himoinsa SA who have been contracted as the Eureka power provider.
We can probably expect some fairly rapid development as a gas power station can be built in a matter of months. A gas power station unit is basically a jet engine connected to a generator in a shed with a transformer to have the output at the correct voltage. Several suppliers offer the necessary equipment almost off the shelf.
The longest delay may well be the construction of the short pipeline or the short length of electrical grid, rather than the pilot power station unit.
The acceptance by the Environmental Management Authority of the impact assessment shows that Invictus is willing to follow the rules, largely to minimise environmental damage and ensure safety to surrounding communities.
The assessment also deals with the longer-term effects and what is needed to rehabilitate that minimum of environmental damage.
As Invictus has shown, it is considerably better and easier to work out all the problems and lay down solutions in advance, rather than have to clean up an environmental mess or disaster later on because no one worked through the development when they should have done.
The EMA is not unreasonable, but is charged with making sure that while development takes place for the growth of the nation, this development produces the minimum in damage.
Invictus are also keen to as commercial extraction of gas starts, to be able to liquefy this gas and transport it to markets.
As has been clear all along, the main product from the Cabora Basa basin, at least at the beginning, will be natural gas although the condensates from the heavier hydrocarbons will be commercially useful in time.
The main market for the initial gas extraction needs to be electric power, Zimbabwe's economy is growing at a fast clip and already the demand for electricity exceeds supply, and although the six older units at Hwange Thermal can be refurbished or rebuilt, and more units can be added, the country urgently needs another major power station.
The risks of severe drought in the upper Zambezi catchment means that Zimbabwe and Zambia can no longer rely on their Kariba power stations to the degree that they have for the past 60 years, and the building and commissioning of a dam and a pair of hydro-electric power stations in the Batoka Gorge now appears to be an extremely risky business venture, so risky that no one is pursuing what was once regarded as the obvious next major investment.
Gas power stations are still carbon burners, but the carbon footprint of a gas power station is about half that of an equivalent sized coal station, so using gas is a more environmentally friendly option. Even more importantly, a gas station is significantly cheaper than an equivalent coal station, since there is less machinery involved.
While solar power is the obvious green source of power for Zimbabwe, there is the factor that it is only generated while the sun shines. While storage solutions exist, these are not really cheap. In any case there is need for a base of 24/7 power generation
So, once there is a guaranteed source of gas, the gas power station is the obvious option. The Invictus discoveries have shown that there is a guaranteed source of gas, and while Invictus want to drill more wells to explore the boundaries and potential yields of the gas fields that are now known to exist, they also want to start commercial drilling and exploitation of what is known.
Commercial gas exploitation could also start providing raw materials for what should be a chemical industrial sector in Zimbabwe.
This starts with fertilisers, as we still have to import a large chunk of what we need. But the main source of ammonia and ammonia products production these days is natural gas, and that would make a huge dent in our import bills.
In fact Sable Chemicals expressed a few years ago interest in seeing a pipeline from the top end of Mashonaland Central to Kwekwe, so important can natural gas be as a raw material in so many chemical products, starting with the ammonia fertilisers.
This was just a declaration of interest, and again costing will decide whether it is more sensible to liquefy and truck the gas, or send it by pipeline.
The future major power station presents choices again, whether it should be built on the field with the grid connections and grid extensions to bring the power to where most users are, or whether it would be better to build the power station near an existing town, perhaps Bindura, and pipe the gas from the field to the power station.
In either case we hope that those responsible for Zimbabwe's energy development are in contact with Invictus to work out the correct solution, so that as commercial gas supplies start being available we can use them properly and quickly.
COMTEX_462968085/2029/2025-02-20T13:33:49
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