Extraction of oil from Qashqari oil field, a good sign for Afghanistan’s economy

According to representatives of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, daily oil extraction from the Qashqari oilfield in Sar-e-Pul province amounts to about $130,000. This is seen as a major accomplishment for the national economy.

According to the ministry of mines and petroleum, the Qashqari basin in Sar-e-Pul province has 10 wells and currently, 200 tons of oil are extracted from nine of the 10 wells in the province.

Meanwhile, the Afghanistan ministry of finance has reported that the contract for extraction of oil from Qashqari oilfield has been signed with a Chinese company. According to the ministry’s officials, the Chinese company in cooperation with Afghanistan Gas and Petroleum Company will extract oil from the oilfield in Sar-e-Pul.

The country’s ministry of finance has said that 20 percent of the contract belongs to the Afghan company, while the rest belongs to the Chinese company.

Previously, the Qashqari block project was opened by Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Beradar and acting minister of mines and petroleum Shahabuddin Delawar in early March last year.

Meanwhile, the country’s ministry of mines and petroleum had previously said that 200 tons of oil were extracted from Qashqari oilfield on daily basis. Based on information of the ministry, the value of the oilfields in Amu River is to reach $7 billion. With starting the extraction of oil from the Amu basin, Afghanistan will be able to export oil to other countries in three years.
Afghanistan has recently signed extraction of oil from the respective basin with China Petroleum Economics and Information Research Center (CPEIC). With signing the contract, the country’s ministry of mines and petroleum said that some 3000 jobs would be created for Afghans inside the country.

And the capacity of extracting oil from the Qashqari mine will increase from 200 tons to 1000 tons and more in the future.

In its most recent report about the extraction of oil from Qashqari oilfield, the ministry of mines and petroleum informed that fuel worth nearly $30 million has been sold from the Qashqari oilfield. In April 2022, the MoMP started extracting oil from the four wells in Qashqari. Reports put the daily oil extraction at 200 tons worth 150,000 dollars.

In a tweet, the ministry tweeted that nearly $30 million oil had been sold from the four wells mine so far. Similar to neighboring Iran and Turkmenistan, Afghanistan is also estimated to hold nearly 1.6 billion barrels of crude petroleum and 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Also, a 2019 report by Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum estimates the country’s copper deposits at 30 million tons. One Afghan mining report shared by the ministry describes another 28.5 million tons of copper in undiscovered deposits, bringing the total closer to 60 million tons, valued at hundreds of billions of dollars.

The same report describes over 2.2 billion tons of raw iron ore, a precursor to steel valued at over $350 billion, in addition to a far smaller gold deposit estimated at 2,700 kg, with a value of $170 million