Will natural gas be a catalyst for Zimbabwe’s development?

In late 2023, it was confirmed that Zimbabwe had natural gas reserves following Invictus Energy’ discovery in late 2023;

‘The Australian-based company said four samples from a well in the north had shown the presence of gas in a country that has suffered severe power shortages and endured years of economic hardship. “The discovery represents one of the most significant developments in the onshore southern Africa oil and gas industry for decades,” said Scott Macmillan, managing director of Invictus.’ - Scott Macmillan, managing director of Invictus.

Source: Financial Times

It’s no surprise that such a revelation would cause a lot of excitement (and apprehension as we will discuss later) but as is usually the case we wanted to look at some of the numbers around this “opportunity” in order to contextualise the hype.