Afghanistan's transitional Islamic administration is working towards licensing oil and gas blocks in the North Afghan-Tajik basin.
The Ministry of Mines & Industries let a $500,000 contract last April to Gustavson Associates Inc., Boulder, Colo., consulting firm, to estimate reserves in existing fields and produce a data package to be offered to international oil companies. World Bank provided the funds.
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The country is formulating a new petroleum law, but the administration has had limited time before elections scheduled for September 2004 and decided to take up only 12 vital laws. The petroleum law is not among them.
A first licensing round could be held as early as 2005. Gustavson Associates, which plans to advise the ministry as it formulates license terms, was delivering its reserve estimate to the ministry in early August.
Prior regimes have estimated the country's medium term potential at 2 to 5 tcf of gas, but Gustavson Associates has pointed to potential in untested subsalt formations that produce elsewhere in the region.
The ministry engineered the agreement with Gustavson Associates and negotiated it in a transparent process, demonstrating the institutional capacity of this sector of the Afghan government, said Dr. Mir Mahfooz Nedai, acting minister.
"We intend to recommend to combine development of known gas reserves with exploration of large acreages with upside plays," said John Gustavson, principal of the consultancy.
The area around Sheberghan is producing small volumes of gas and oil, and so is the adjacent part of the basin in Uzbekistan.
The Soviets discovered about 15 gas and oil accumulations in the 1960s through mid-1980s in the basin and placed on production three gas fields: Djar-Kuduk, Hodja-Gugerdag, and Yetym-Tag.
They also recovered oil from Angot field south of Sar-e Pol. Angot crude was shipped to a topping plant at Sheberghan for use in central heating boilers in Sheberghan, Mazar-e Sharif, and Kabul. The plant was destroyed during the wars, but oil is still heated in horizontal retorts.
Gas was exported or used to produce urea in a small fertilizer plant near Mazar-e Sharif (OGJ, Sept. 13, 1982, p. 34). US government sources believe that 16 gas wells in three fields are producing a combined 2 MMcfd of gas.
Raisat-e Tasadi (Afghan Gas), headquartered in Sheberghan and headed by president Mr. Habibulah, is responsible for gas production, transmission, and distribution.