Mallika Dureja
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The Afghan government, which is run by the Taliban, has made a deal with a Chinese company to get oil from the Amu Darya basin and build an oil reserve in the northern province of Sar-e Pul.
Sheikh Shahabuddin Delawar, who is acting Minister of Mines and Petroleum, and an official from Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Co (CAPEIC) signed the contract on Thursday at a ceremony in the capital, Kabul.
It was the first big deal between the Taliban government and a foreign company for extracting public goods since the Taliban took power in 2021.
The #Taliban regime in #Afghanistan has signed an oil extraction agreement with #China’s Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Co, the country’s first major foreign deal since the Taliban seized control in 2021. https://t.co/GPFFvpmCbT
— The Epoch Times – China Insider (@EpochTimesChina) January 7, 2023
State-run Bakhtar News Agency said that acting Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu were also at the signing ceremony.
“Recently, the Economic Commission approved a number of projects, and when they are carried out, important steps will be taken for the country’s prosperity and the public good,” the agency said Baradar said.
“We ask the company to keep going with the process so that it meets international standards and is in the best interest of the people of Sar-e Pul,” he said.
Delawar spoke at the event and said that under the deal, the Chinese company will get oil from an area that is 4,500 square kilometres (1,737 square miles) in size and is spread out over the northern provinces of Sar-e Pul, Jawzjan, and Faryab.
“This project will give jobs to more than 3,000 people in the area,” he said.
The Chinese envoy said that the deal was important for the war-torn country’s economy and a step in the right direction toward better ties between Kabul and Beijing.
Wang Yu said, “The Amu Darya oil contract is a big project between China and Afghanistan.”
Under the contract, CAPEIC will put $150 million a year into Afghanistan, said Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the government run by the Taliban.
He said that over the 25-year contract, the company would have to spend $540 million more in three years.
The government that is run by the Taliban will have a 20% stake in the project, which can be raised to 75%, he said.
In 2012, China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), a state-owned company, made a deal with Afghanistan’s former government, which was backed by the United States, to get oil from the Amu Darya basin in the northern provinces of Faryab and Sar-e Pul.
At the time, it was thought that Amu Darya held up to 87 million barrels of crude oil. Delawar said that processing the oil in Afghanistan was a part of the deal.
Baradar said at a news conference on Thursday that another Chinese company, which he didn’t name, stopped extracting after the last government fell, so a deal was made with CAPEIC.
Afghanistan is thought to have untapped resources worth more than $1 trillion, which has piqued the interest of some foreign investors. However, decades of conflict have made it hard to use these resources in a big way.
A Chinese company owned by the government is also in talks with the government led by the Taliban about running a copper mine in the eastern part of the province of Logar. This is another deal that was first made with the previous government.
China hasn’t officially recognised the Taliban government, but it has a lot of stakes in a country in the middle of an important region for its Belt and Road infrastructure project.
China has set a new precedent, low & dangerous by signing a deal with a group which isn't a govt, its cabinet is on terror list & more importantly d Amu Darya isn't a constituency of HQN or Talibs.The funds will be used for opression of specfic ppl.https://t.co/XudLWgeNCA
— Amrullah Saleh (@AmrullahSaleh2) January 6, 2023
