Qatar Backs Zimbabwe Gas Project Through Equity in Invictus Energy
Qatar’s Al Mansour Holdings and Invictus Energy (ASX: IVZ) announced a partnership agreement whereby the Qatari Sovereign Wealth Fund (#SWF) will take a 19.9% stake in Australian-based Invictus Energy for USD 24.5 million. In particular, Al Mansour pledged to inject of half a billion US dollars to create a JV. With this deal, the flagship natural gas project in the Cabora Bassa Bassin in Muzarabani, Zimbabwe, might see the light at the end of the tunnel and thus moves closer to commercial production.
Actually, the scope of the deal goes beyond Zimbabwe and ambitions to cover the whole of Africa as part of Qatar’s USD 300 billion investment plan (#QA300B). To that effect, Invictus and Al Mansour have established a JV called Al Mansour Oil & Gas (AMOG) which aims to acquire and develop hydrocarbon assets across Africa. Sheikh Mansour bin Jabor bin Jassim al Thani, who is a member of the Qatari royal family, will head the JV, while Scott McMillan will act as Deputy Chair and Ryan Singh as CEO. Invictus will be responsible for asset identification, assessment and management, and Al Mansour will provide the funding.
“We’ve got to do that to unlock the rest of that finance, so it’s firmly on the agenda. Now that we’ve got this funding secured, we’re off the treadmill of the capital markets. We can now plan larger exploration campaigns, which are far more efficient … Our mission is to unlock the immense potential of Africa’s oil and gas sector in a way that benefits governments, communities, and investors alike. ”
Invictus MD Scott Macmillan
The Caboro Bassa LNG project is controlled by Invictus through an ownership stake of 80%, while the Zimbabwean National Social Security Authority (NSSA), One Gas Resources — led by Zimbabwean geologist Paul Chimbodza — and other local investors own the remaining 20%.
Invictus and Zimbabwe are also in talks on a Petroleum Production Sharing Agreement which will define how future revenues will be shared. The Government of Zimbabwe will have a 10% ‘back-in-right’ option once the Final Investment Decision is made.
The capital injection from Al Mansour brought great excitement in Zimbabwe which sees the realization of gas production coming within reach. Currently, Zimbabwe is a net electricity importer supplied by South Africa and Mozambique. The Cabora Bassa Bassin has a confirmed reserves of 1.3 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas, and if properly developed, could transform Zimbabwe from a energy importer to an exporter.