Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has signed an exploration and extraction agreement with Delta International for the Kushk-Tirpul oil and gas basin in western Afghanistan. Official details put the initial investment at $200 million, covering work on seven gas blocks in the Kushk area.
The contract is reported to run for 25 years, while the exploration phase may last up to eight years. The Kushk-Tirpul basin, between Herat and Badghis, covers roughly 22,000 square kilometres. Early work is expected to focus on establishing the size, quality and commercial viability of underground resources.
An initial exploration commitment is not the same as a fully committed production investment. Future spending depends on drilling results, financing, technical costs, infrastructure and final investment decisions. Larger figures discussed for later phases should therefore be treated as conditional plans until those milestones are reached.
If commercially viable reserves are confirmed, the project could create options for local gas use, industry, electricity generation and later pipeline infrastructure. The next decisive evidence will come from fieldwork, geological surveys and exploration results.