IVZ awards contracts for Musuma-1 well - on track for spud in H2-2026

Our oil & gas Investment Invictus Energy (ASX: IVZ) just awarded drilling contracts for its next big oil and gas well.

IVZ’ also confirmed that the Musuma-1 well would be spud in H2-2026.

(IF IVZ’s previous drilling windows are anything to go by, that should be somewhere between September and December).

We did notice, IVZ’s image in the announcement said Q3 - so it could be in September…

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With Musuma-1, IVZ is targeting a 1.2 Tcf gas and 73 million barrels of condensate resource (gross mean unrisked).

Musuma is one of many targets IVZ has across its broader ~5.5 billion barrel oil equivalent prospective resource inventory.

It will be the first well IVZ drills since making its Mukuyu discovery across two wells in 2022/2023 (~1.3 Tcf gas / ~230M barrels of oil equivalent, Sub-Saharan Africa's second-largest discovery of 2023).

The difference with Musuma-1 is that it is shallower AND technically less complex at just a ~1,500m target depth versus Mukuyu's ~3,360m.

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Today IVZ awarded the following contracts:

1. Wellpad construction and civil works - including access road upgrades and water supply to ready the site for Rig 202.
2. Rig mobilisation - its current contractor, Exalo S.A., is moving a team to Zimbabwe this week to begin in-country setup and critical maintenance ahead of the move to site.

Alongside those awards, IVZ set out the packages it is still finalising:

1. Long-lead equipment (wellheads and tubulars) - evaluation on this is complete, awards being prepared.
2. Well services - award targeted "in the coming weeks", completing the final suite of contracts for the well.
3. Logistics and mobilisation - are to be awarded once the drilling and well services providers are locked in.

So there's more contract newsflow to come and we can expect that these awards should land over the coming weeks, ahead of the important rig move.

What else is IVZ up to?

IVZ has also announced plans to get its testing programs underway for its existing discoveries and even singled out a potential customer for its gas - the nearby Eureka gold mine:

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Here is a closer look at the plan for the testing program:

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Check out the webinar MD Scott Macmillan did back in April here:

(Invictus Energy shareholder update webinar - April 2026)

What we want to see next from IVZ:

Drill the Musuma-1 well

We want to see IVZ drill its next well targeting 1.2 Tcf gas + 77M barrels of condensate resource.

Contracts have now begun to be awarded, so the timeline should be firming up for that H2 scheduled well drill.

IVZ expects to be drilling next half

Here are the milestones we will be tracking:

• 🔄Rig mobilisation to site
• 🔲Drilling starts
• 🔲Drilling updates
• 🔲Drilling results

A new deal?

A big part of the old deal with the Qatari’s was to look at acquiring new assets in Africa (more advanced assets).

IVZ has also mentioned “New venture business development” again in a recent announcement - which definitely caught our eye…

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IF this came in then it would be an added bonus for our IVZ Investment Thesis.