Afghan Government Selects Group for Northern Oil & Gas Blocks
Publish Date: Dec 01, 2012



International Consortium to Enter into Contract Negotiations

Kabul, Afghanistan – The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan today authorized the Ministry of Mines to enter into negotiations with a consortium consisting of Dragon Oil, Ghazanfar, Kuwait Energy, and TPAO to initiate Exploration and Production Sharing Contracts for oil and gas blocks in the Afghan-Tajik Basin of northern Afghanistan. The international consortium submitted the highest royalty bid of the bids opened earlier this month. It emerged as the preferred bidder following a comprehensive technical and economic analysis by a multi-Ministry Contracts Evaluation Team and review by the Inter-Ministerial Commission.

“This is a great step forward for Afghanistan,” stated H.E. WahidullahShahrani, Minister of Mines. “Following last week’s open, public, and transparent bidding session, the Government has approved a very capable preferred bidder. I look forward to the prompt conclusion of contracts that will lead to rapid development of our nation’s resources and creation of thousands of jobs in the oil and gas sector,” he continued.

Once concluded, the Exploration and Production Sharing Contracts will be subject to review and approval by the Inter-Ministerial Commission and the Council of Ministers.

The investment in the oil and gas sector in the Afghan-Tajik Basin is ultimately expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars and will bring economic benefits to the region in the form of infrastructure projects and community development.

The Afghan-Tajik Basin tender continues the tender program for development of Afghanistan’s oil and gas resources that began last year with the award of three oil blocks in the Amu Darya Basin. In addition to these tendered basins, Northern Afghanistan is believed to contain still-undiscovered resources of more than a billion barrels of oil equivalent of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. Other regions of Afghanistan are also believed to contain oil, gas, and minerals wealth potential as well.

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The Afghanistan Ministry of Mines has a mandate to unlock Afghanistan’s mineral and hydrocarbon wealth in an efficient and transparent manner that benefits all of the Afghan people. Afghanistan welcomes the responsible participation of the private sector in the development of its industry and natural resources as set out in the Constitution of Afghanistan and the Afghan National Development Strategy. For more information go to: www.mom.gov.af