China CNPC agrees oil deal in Afghanistan

Chinese state-owned oil giant China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has reached final agreement with the Afghan government to develop an oil field there, an Afghan mines ministry official told Reuters on Wednesday. Jalil Jumriany, policy director at the mines ministry in Kabul, said the terms of the oil project have been finalised and senior leadership on both sides were expected to approve it within two months.
"The investment of the project will be huge, and in the first two years, the investment will be at least $200-300 million," Jumriany said. Officials at CNPC in Beijing, the parent company of PetroChina, declined to comment immediately. The deal covering drilling and a refinery in the northern province of Sar-e Pul is the first international oil production deal entered into by the Afghan government for several decades.