Muzarabani, Mbire revel in gas findings
Story by Tapiwa Machemedze
THE people in Mashonaland Central province are anticipating significant industrialisation and development in the province this year following the discovery of gas in the Muzarabani basin late last year.
Prospects of industrialisation and social transformation are high after the government confirmed and declared gas discovery from the ongoing exploration by Australian stock exchange-listed company Invictus Energy.
Mbire RDC Chairperson, Councillor Ishmael Chawakura said there is anticipation of downstream investment while residents expressed hope of more employment opportunities being unlocked.
He said, “This ‘gas declaration’ is very great especially to the local community because already, there is a lot of potential in terms of developing our district and already we also have some locals employed here which is also an advantage when we look the issue at industrialisation, were we are saying there is a lot of potentials so as Mbire RDC, we are also preparing local masterplan in which we are saying we need to get opportunity that we are supposed to get especially when we look at the land that is supposed to be utilised, the stands and all those things.”
“We expect to benefit from the development that will have taken place in the community for example we have heard of other places developing when there are findings of precious metals like gold,” said a community member.”
“Our kids should get jobs, now that the gas explorers are here, we expect the children to benefit,” said another community member.
Invictus Energy has been conducting two-dimensional surveys and will be conducting more drilling and 3-dimensional seismic surveys in the coming months to get more accurate information.
Invictus Energy, Representative, Mr Garth Prichard said, “We have found gas, we have extracted so now again with a lot of these logging tools, it gives you a lot more information about the reservoir size, it’s like seismic right down to three and a half kilometres, so it a lot more accurate, we can get a lot more information of the structure of the reservoir but again it’s all data so it has to be sent away and processed analysed so it does take a bit of time to be processed, probably three or four months to be processed.”
The government is optimistic current developments will open up new horizons for the province and the country as a whole.
“The exercise is going well, we are excited, the report we received from Invictus which was presented to the President about progress on what they are doing we are told there are very high prospects for gas so far. Two holes were drilled at Mukuyu 1 and Mukuyu 2 where we are,” said Mbire RDC Council Chairperson Cllr. Ishmael Chawakura.
He added, “The good thing is that even before full discovery, the community is benefitting quite a bit, we have several people employed. We think Mbire is poised for massive development given the new city in Kanyemba, we are positive the GDP of our province will improve.”
Invictus Energy is supported by Geo Associates and One Gas Resources in its exploration activities in the Muzarabani basin.
