The gradual settling of peace in Afghanistan is opening up the possibility that the country may soon be able to finally cash in on its abundant energy resources in the north.
Afghanistan is estimated to have some 12 million tonnes of oil reserves and 5 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves but it is currently importing 600,000 tonnes of oil and gas each year.
Officials say that foreign companies are now expressing interest in the reserves around this northern city, the main base of Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam, who himself once worked on the local natural gas fields.
"We cannot say exactly how many fields we have, but they can be a major source of wealth for Afghanistan," said Engineer Farid, general director of the energy department in the main northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
"In the Russian period [1979-1989] 60 percent of Afghanistan's budget was coming from the gas. The problem is that we do not have any refineries so we have to import gas and oil. If we can set up refineries, then we can definitely become exporters."
Mohammad Ibrahim Yacoubzai, general director of petroleum exploration in the northern zone, said only one of five known oil fields in the region is currently active. But the lack of a refinery meant that only small amounts of crude oil were being sold to local companies, who then boiled the product themselves to produce diesel.
"They do not know the pressure, they do not have a gauge for the temperature so it's not scientific. They have pans and boil the oil," he said. "If we use this in engines it will ruin the engines."
Yacoubzai said the priority was to attract foreign companies which would be prepared to drill wells, build refineries and create a comprehensive pipeline network.
"We know we have a lot of oil but we need lots of studies. We need to understand the depth of these wells. "But in the future we ... can be self-sufficient and export to the other countries. If the oil in the north becomes active and we use it properly it will help the economy of the whole of Afghanistan. If there is security and stability and if a company helps us in two years we can have a refinery. Until now we have not been able to give any guarantees [about security]."
Mohammad Akram Ghiaci, president of the mines department at the Ministry of Mines and Industry in Kabul, said that a Canadian and US firm had already expressed interest in drilling rights for oil in the north.
"The oil wells we have at the moment are very small but we hope that in the future we will discover bigger wells. Various companies have come and discussed with us and gone to their embassies."
Much interest has been expressed over the years in building a pipeline to ferry neighboring Turkmenistan's massive gas and oil reserves through north-western Afghanistan down to Pakistan and then out through the Indian Ocean, but all plans have been on hold because of the Afghan conflict.
The interested governments have recently agreed in principle to the resurrection of the scheme.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
RSS