Afghanistan launches first-ever bidding round

April 7, 2009
Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines said it "has initiated the process that will lead to the bidding round for the award of exploration and production sharing contracts for hydrocarbon operations."

Eric Watkins
OGJ Oil Diplomacy Editor

LOS ANGELES, Apr. 7 -- Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines said it "has initiated the process that will lead to the bidding round for the award of exploration and production sharing contracts for hydrocarbon operations."

The ministry reported that the two gas blocks and one oil block to be auctioned lie in the northern part of the country where most oil and gas fields were discovered in the 1970s.

It said the Jangalikalan and Juma-Bashikurd gas blocks together hold recoverable reserves of 52 billion cu m, while the Kashkari oil block has recoverable reserves of 64.4 million bbl.

Two years ago, after completing a multiyear study, the US Geological Survey estimated Afghanistan's mean undiscovered resources at 15.7 tcf of gas, 1.6 billion bbl of oil, and 562 million bbl of natural gas liquids (OGJ Online, Mar. 27, 2006).

USGS said much of Afghanistan's petroleum resource potential and all the known oil and gas reserves are in the north. It said most of the undiscovered oil is in the Afghan-Tajik basin, while most of the undiscovered gas is in the Amu Darya basin.

A road show for the Afghan licensing round will be launched in Kabul on Apr. 26 before it travels on to Dubai, London, Calgary, Houston, and Singapore (OGJ Online, Mar. 19, 2009).

London-based consultant Exclusive Analysis recently predicted: "In the coming year, core al-Qaeda is…likely to focus on the military jihad in Afghanistan as the primary means of draining the US economy (OGJ Online, Apr. 3, 2009)."

Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].