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Brief history of the country
Zimbabwe (the Republic of Zimbabwe) borders South Africa (south), Botswana (west), Zambia (north) and Mozambique (east).
San hunter-gatherers were replaced by Bantus after 300 AD. Shona kingdoms, including the Mapungubwe from 1075, the Zimbabwe from 1220, and the Mutapa from 1450, traded with Arab merchants. The Portuguese tried to take control but militarised Shonas (the Rozwi) forced them out.
In the 19th century the Zulu Ndebele clan, pushed out of South Africa, conquered the Rozwi in 1838, and settled in Matabeleland. From 1888 the British South Africa Company, led by Cecil Rhodes, acquired mining rights and took control over what was now called Southern Rhodesia.
The country was ceded to the UK in 1923 and the short-lived semi-independent Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was created in 1953. Pressured to introduce majority rule, the white government of Southern Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence in 1965. A guerrilla war and sanctions followed, culminating in a peace agreement in 1979, black rule, and a name change to Zimbabwe.
Robert Mugabe and his ZANU party won an election victory and proceeded to subjugate Matebeleland and forcibly redistribute land. Mugabe lost power in 2017, after decades of poor human rights and economic decline.
Oil and gas summary
Zimbabwe is land-locked, lying between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers. Most of the country is elevated with a central plateau (high veld) at altitudes of between 1,000 and 1,600m.
The east is mountainous with Mount Nyangani the highest point at 2,592m. A small part in the south is low-lying (the low veld) under 900m. The Zambezi valley along the northern border from Lake Kariba in the east to Victoria Falls in the west is a rift basin. The Zambesi drops 100m at the Falls which were named by Livingstone in 1855.
Most of the country is underlain by metamorphic and volcanic rocks but parts of the un-eroded Karoo basin in the northeast contain extensive resources of coal with the possibility for coal bed methane extraction.
No conventional oil and gas exploration wells had been drilled up to 2022 when Mukuyu-1 was drilled in the Cabora Bassa rift basin in the northeast. A substantial gas play may have been identified which is being evaluated.
ZIMBABWE
Map and National Flag
South and East Africa
S. AND E. AFRICA
Elephants
Capital
Population
Land area (sq kms)
Oil prod (000s b/d)
Gas prod (bcm/yr)
Oil cons (000s b/d)
Gas cons (bcm/yr)
Harare
12.6 mm
390,757
None
None
20
None
Government
Zimbabwe has a presidential system with an upper chamber (Senate) reinstated in 2005 and a 120-member House of Assembly.
President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) has been the dominant party since independence. Allegations of vote rigging are persistent and it is only recently that opposition parties have been able to increase their role in government.
Oil and Gas Resources in Zimbabwe are the responsibility of the Petroleum Department of the Ministry of Energy and Power Development.
Geology and History of Exploration
Land-locked Zimbabwe overlies the ancient Zimbabwe Craton, part of the African Kalahari Craton which was created by collision during the assembly of the Gondwana super-continent at the end of the Pre-Cambrian. It comprises greenstones, gneisses and granites.
The Zimbabwe Craton is separated from the Kaapvaal Craton to the southeast by the metamorphic Limpopo Belt which remained geologically active for longer. North of the Zimbabwe Craton is the Zambezi Belt in Zambia.
The Kalahari craton was covered by a large inland basin during the Late Carboniferous to the Middle-Jurassic which, in Zimbabwe, includes the Kariba and Kalahari basins in the northwest of the country and the Caborra Bassa basin in the northeast.
The Kariba and Kalahari were explored for oil and gas in Zambia but without success whilst the Caborra basin has also been studied in Mozambique.
The Kalahari basin has large Carboniferous coal resources. During the Jurassic the crust under the Karoo basin in the southwest of Southern Africa ruptured, releasing huge volumes of basaltic lava bringing Karoo sedimentation to an end.
History - Zimbabwe had no history of drilling or production up to 2022 although some seismic had been conducted, especially over the Caborra Bassa basin. This basin may have analogs to rift structures found in neighbouring countries to the north. Drilling began in 2022 and gas and condensate potential has been identified.
A CBM business, extracting gas from the extensive coal resources is being developed. In 1994 Shangani Energy completed Africa's first coalbed methane shallow production well (Tromp-Gas Vlei-1) near the Shangani River in the southwest of the country although this resource has never been exploited commercially.
ZIMBABWE: CABORA BASSA BASIN
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