AUSTRALIAN energy firm Invictus Energy Limited has renewed its push for Gulf funding after the collapse of a US$500 million investment deal with Qatari investor Al Mansour Holdings (AMH), betting again on one of the world’s deepest pools of capital to prop up its Zimbabwe project.
Gulf investors — including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi’s ADIA and Mubadala — collectively control trillions of dollars in assets, making the region a prime target for large-scale energy deals.
Invictus managing director Scott Macmillan said the company has resumed partnering talks after terminating the AMH agreement in January.
“We have also resumed partnering discussions in February following the termination of the AMH deal that we entered into last August. This was a good deal that we did,” Macmillan told shareholders this week.
He said the proposed structure raised legal constraints.
Invictus is seeking funding to advance its Cabora Bassa oil and gas project in north-eastern Zimbabwe, where progress towards commercial production has been slow since the company began work in 2018.
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In December 2023, the firm announced a gas discovery at its Mukuyu well, with indications pointing to a potential 184 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Macmillan said recently they had secured capital commitments of A$10 million (US$7,15 million) for further exploration at the Musuma well.
“We have got tremendous support from the government and again everyone wants this to work. There has been a lot of press, locally, reporting about the delays in the project and particularly with the crisis that is going on in the Gulf,” he said.
He added that global competition for energy resources, alongside the critical minerals boom, has sharpened focus on the project.
“This project has become front and centre and a kind of cornerstone of positive development in the country, so the government is keen to get on with it,” Macmillan said.
He said a high-ranking Zimbabwean official is expected to visit the site by month-end to inspect progress and the company’s supply base.
The Musuma well is estimated to hold up to 1,2 trillion cubic feet of gas and 73 million barrels of condensate, a high-value liquid that can be refined into fuels such as petrol, diesel and jet fuel.