Kabul, Dec 28 (IANS) Afghanistan and China Wednesday signed an agreement on oil production here.
The Afghan government and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) inked the agreement here after the China’s state-owned firm won the country’s first oilfield bidding, reported Xinhua.
The Chinese company is ‘to explore and extract the Amu Darya river basin oil deposits in northern Afghanistan and will start producing oil in the next two years’, Afghan Minister for Mines Waheedullah Shahrani told the media.
Shahrani and top CNPC official Lu Gongxun signed the agreement.
‘I am very glad to attend this ceremony for the energy cooperation between CNPC and Afghanistan’s ministry of mining which is the symbol of bilateral energy cooperation,’ Lu said.
According to the agreement, the CNPC will launched a joint project with local partner Watan Group.
Under the contract, the CNPC agreed to pay a 15 percent royalty in oil itself, a 20 percent corporate tax and Afghanistan would have a share of 70 percent in the profit proceeds.
