• Invictus Energy has secured the drilling equipment for its Musuma 1 exploration well
• Musuma carries estimated gross mean unrisked prospective resources of 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas and 73 million barrels of condensate
• The well will test a prospect outside the Mukuyu discovery area, providing new geological evidence on the extent of the Cabora Bassa petroleum system

Harare - Invictus Energy has secured Exalo Rig 202 for its Musuma 1 exploration well and set November 2026 for drilling, reducing uncertainty around rig availability as the company prepares to test another part of Zimbabwe’s Cabora Bassa Basin.

The company executed a Deed of Variation with Exalo Drilling covering rig preparation and mobilisation. Maintenance and operational readiness work remain ahead, alongside wellpad construction, final well service awards, equipment preparation, mobilisation and rig assembly.

The contract therefore firms an execution timetable that previously placed Musuma broadly in the second half of 2026. Geological risk remains unchanged. Musuma is an undrilled prospect and the November campaign will determine whether the geological interpretation supporting its prospective resource estimate translates into a discovery.

Invictus estimates Musuma contains gross mean unrisked prospective resources of approximately 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas and 73 million barrels of condensate. These volumes relate to an undiscovered accumulation and carry discovery and development risk. They are neither reserves nor established future production.

That distinction is particularly important after the progress already made at Mukuyu.

Invictus drilled Mukuyu 1 in 2022 and Mukuyu 2 in 2023, establishing a working petroleum system and gas condensate discoveries in the Cabora Bassa Basin. Mukuyu 2 encountered gas bearing reservoirs in the Upper and Lower Angwa formations and approximately 35 metres of net gas pay.

The company has estimated the initial Mukuyu discoveries at approximately 1.3 trillion cubic feet of gas equivalent, or around 230 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Mukuyu changed the geological case for Cabora Bassa by establishing hydrocarbons within Invictus’ acreage. The investment case has since advanced towards harder questions around the geographic extent of the petroleum system, recoverable resource scale and eventual development economics.

Musuma addresses part of that uncertainty. The prospect sits outside the Mukuyu discovery area in the eastern portion of Invictus’ acreage and emerged from interpretation of the company’s 2023 seismic programme. The planned vertical well will target the Dande Formation at approximately 1,500 metres.

A discovery would establish another hydrocarbon accumulation away from Mukuyu and add geological evidence for evaluating the surrounding eastern prospects. It would also reduce the concentration of Invictus’ exploration success around a single discovery area.

A dry well would leave Mukuyu as the established discovery while adding subsurface information that could alter the geological assumptions applied to Musuma and nearby prospects.

For shareholders, this makes Musuma an exercise in converting exploration capital into geological information.Invictus remains an exploration company without petroleum production cash flows. Each drilling campaign consumes capital ahead of any commercial revenue and therefore needs to improve knowledge of the resource base sufficiently to support subsequent appraisal, partnership or financing decisions.

Musuma’s value cannot consequently be measured from its 1.2 trillion cubic feet headline alone. The result has to change the probability, scale or distribution of an eventual commercial development.

This distinction becomes important when prospective resources are translated into investment expectations. Prospective resources relate to estimated quantities associated with undiscovered accumulations. A discovery can subsequently support assessment of contingent resources once sufficient technical work establishes quantities potentially recoverable from the discovered accumulation. Reserves require a substantially higher threshold built around commercial recoverability under defined development conditions.

Invictus remains well short of that final threshold in Cabora Bassa.The company has spent several years reducing geological uncertainty since entering the project in 2018 after acquiring historical exploration information associated with work undertaken by Mobil during the 1990s. It subsequently reprocessed historical seismic data, acquired additional seismic coverage and built an exploration position covering approximately 360,000 hectares.

Mukuyu delivered the first major geological validation of that work. Musuma now tests whether exploration success can be extended into another part of the acreage.

A Musuma discovery could give Invictus a broader asset base when approaching potential partners and capital providers. Multiple discoveries across separate areas could improve the information available to assess the wider acreage and influence the terms under which subsequent exploration and appraisal capital is raised.

An unsuccessful well would consume exploration capital without adding another discovery. Future expenditure would then remain anchored more heavily to Mukuyu, appraisal priorities and the remaining prospect inventory.

The company’s precise funding capacity therefore matters alongside the geological case. Rig availability establishes that an essential operational input has been secured. Investors still need to assess the cost of completing Musuma against available cash and the capital required for subsequent appraisal and exploration.

The November programme should consequently be assessed through a sequence of observable milestones. Wellpad construction has to be completed. Rig 202 must pass preparation and readiness work. Remaining well services need to be contracted. Equipment and personnel then have to reach the site before rig assembly and drilling can begin.

Progress through those stages will provide evidence on whether the November timetable remains achievable. Completion of the operational programme will transfer attention almost entirely to the subsurface result.

The Zimbabwean economic case sits further down the development chain. Domestic demand potentially exists for natural gas across electricity generation and industrial applications. Zimbabwe imports electricity during periods of domestic supply shortages and remains dependent on imported liquid fuels, while gas could serve selected industrial and power generation uses.

Potential demand does not establish a bankable market for Cabora Bassa gas. Commercial development would require a delivered gas price capable of supporting upstream production, processing, transport infrastructure and financing while remaining competitive for customers. The location and creditworthiness of large buyers, required pipeline infrastructure, achievable tariffs and long term offtake commitments would all influence project economics.

Invictus has explored early commercialisation options, including gas to power, and has previously pursued arrangements associated with a pilot power project at Eureka Gold Mine. Such projects could provide information on domestic gas utilisation if sufficient recoverable resources are established.

The larger economic proposition depends on scale. A sizeable recoverable resource distributed across several discoveries could improve infrastructure economics by allowing common processing and transport assets to serve greater production volumes. Musuma therefore has potential relevance to eventual development economics through the additional resource scale it could establish.

The contractual environment has also progressed. Invictus and the Government of Zimbabwe concluded a Petroleum Production Sharing Agreement in 2026, providing greater definition around the fiscal and contractual framework applicable to a future petroleum development.

That removes one category of uncertainty from the longer term investment case. Commerciality still depends on the subsurface resource, recoverability, development expenditure, operating costs, financing and achievable customer pricing.

For Invictus investors, November therefore represents a geological valuation event sitting behind a series of operational milestones. Securing Rig 202 reduces uncertainty around one of those milestones. Completion of the wellpad, service contracting and mobilisation would further firm execution. None provides new evidence on the presence of hydrocarbons at Musuma.

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