The Taliban-installed authorities in Afghanistan on Thursday signed a contract with a Chinese company for oil extraction in the Amu river basin in the north of the country, in the first such deal since the fundamentalists seized power in August 2021.
Taliban spokesman and Afghan Deputy Information Minister Zabihullah Mujahid said on his Twitter account that the signing took place at the Government Information and Media Center in the capital, Kabul.
The event was attended by Afghanistan’s Minister of Mines and Petroleum, Shahabuddin Delauar, who said it was «a very important contract» and «unprecedented in the last 50 years», according to the Taliban’s deputy spokesman, Bilal Karimi.
He explained that the Chinese company Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Co (CPEIC) will be able to work in an area of 4,500 square kilometers and revealed that the company will invest 150 million dollars a year (around 141.4 million euros) during the three years of exploration and extraction.
Delauar said that 3,500 people will be employed in the project, «all of them young Afghans», before stressing that the processing of the oil extracted will be carried out in Afghanistan, as Karimi pointed out on his Twitter account.
In this line, he specified that there is a clause in the contract that specifies that if the Chinese company does not fulfill its commitments within one year, the agreement will be cancelled. The contract also states that the Islamic Emirate will own 20 percent of the oil fields, with a bonus of 15 percent, although the figure could increase to 75 percent.
For his part, Taliban Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar stressed that the authorities are seeking to «develop the country». «Some people do not see the work and efforts being carried out and cry. We assure that there will be more progress,» he said.
Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu has stressed that «this contract is important for Afghanistan’s economic growth and self-sufficiency,» according to Afghan TV channel Ariana. «It is a good example of cooperation and interaction between the two countries,» he extolled.
China has so far not recognized the Taliban authorities, although it has significant economic interests in the country. In fact, China’s state-owned National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) signed an agreement in 2012 with the then-standing authorities to extract oil from the Amu River basin.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
