China wins Afghanistan oil deal

[Crypto]

China gets approval for Afghanistan oil exploration bid

China has gained potential access to millions of barrels of oil after it won approval for oil exploration and extraction in Afghanistan.

The country's cabinet approved a deal to allow China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to develop oil blocks in the Amu Darya Basin.

The basin is estimated to hold around 87 million barrels of oil.

The deal comes as China is looking to expand its oil resources in wake of a growing domestic demand.

"The Afghan cabinet has ordered mines minister Wahidullah Shahrani to sign an oil exploration contract for Amu Darya with China National Petroleum Corporation," Afghanistan president's office said in a statement.

The state-owned CNPC will carry out the oil exploration and extraction with a local partner, the Watan Group.

While there has been a lot of talk about the potential of natural resources in Afghanistan, analysts said that it was too early to predict the profitability of the venture.

"To a certain extent they are taking a punt," Tony Regan of Tri-Zen, a Singapore-based consultancy, told the BBC.

Mr Regan explained that CNPC will have to spend a considerable amount of money to explore the basin before it can actually find out about the amount of oil that may exist there.

"It is about five to ten years before they can get a feel of what is under the ground and start commercially producing it," he added.

The approval is a major win for China as it has been looking to invest in resource-rich Afghanistan.

However, analysts said that resources is not the only sector that China is looking to invest in.

"The deal is a way of getting a foot inside the door," said Charles Chaw of China Knowledge Consulting.

The ongoing war in Afghanistan has seen its infrastructure and economy being damaged.

Analysts said that as peace returns to the country, it will require a lot of rebuilding activity in order to trigger economic growth in coming years, something that China is keen to tap into.

"China is looking towards a much bigger scale of investment," said Mr Chaw.

"This could involve projects in infrastructure, including high-speed rail in times to come," he added.

BBC News - China gets approval for Afghanistan oil exploration bid

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Awesome.

 

[53fd]

Hammer blow to you-know-who.

 

[Crypto]

Once china enters foot in Afghanistan, it will invest in more projects and i believe all the transportation will be via Pakistan.
All in all a very good development and hope these three countries will become closer on economic terms.

 

[Bhairava]

Hammer blow to you-know-who.

Hammer blow to no one.

Indians are digging up the iron ore and Chinese are emptying up the oil fields with the Afghans raking in the moolah from both.

And this is what will happen from now on. I'm not surprised that the Pakistanis are so short sighted and unable to see the big picture.

 

[Obambam]

Here comes the new silk road

 

[Skull and Bones]

Bdw what Afghanistan's other neighbors getting in Afghanistan? Specially the one who shares warm relations with the Afghans?

 

[SXNJ]

Once china enters foot in Afghanistan, it will invest in more projects and i believe all the transportation will be via Pakistan.
All in all a very good development and hope these three countries will become closer on economic terms.

No doubt all oil transportation will be via Pakistan

 

[Crypto]

Good move, if China starts investing in Afghanistan, they ll make sure Pakistan doesn't destabilize Afghanistan anymore. Win for everyone, most importantly the Afghans.

You mean China will ensure, India doesn't play bad cop in Afghanistan to destabilize Pakistan? Pakistan has always been concerned for legitimate reasons, about anti-pak activities by India and we never wanted a de-stable Afghanistan for our own good.

 

[indushek]

Happy for Afghanistan, oil supplies from Iran and now this. This could bring in the moolah for much needed development there. The Chinese should also start Infra development soon, other than supply routes.

---------- Post added at 12:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:57 PM ----------

Hammer blow to you-know-who.

That was a very cheap post from you.

 

[53fd]

Good move, if China starts investing in Afghanistan, they ll make sure Pakistan doesn't destabilize Afghanistan anymore. Win for everyone, most importantly the Afghans.

I'm surprised you think Pakistan has been destabilizing Afghanistan, considering that Pakistan has been one of the stabilizing factors in Afghanistan. Please read the history of the region before making comments like these.

 

[53fd]

As I have said before, India is quite insignificant in Afghanistan. The US wants India to be significant in Afghanistan, but it won't be. But the real competition for the natural resources in Afghanistan is between China & the US, & the US would have wanted that with all the effort they have put in Afghanistan, they'd get access to the untapped natural resources there (as well as the strategic location to Central Asia). But the reality is that while the US has been spilling the blood of its own soldiers in that country, China will be getting access to these resources without laying down a single life. Pakistan will ensure that China becomes dominant in Afghanistan & Central Asia, & will be pivotal towards the Silk route initiative.

This article is all the more significant in this situation:

It’s time to look beyond Afghan war

This may sound strange but frankly, the first time I travelled to the Amu Darya region of northern Afghanistan was on foot. 18 years ago, when we didn’t have an embassy in Kabul and Pakistan wouldn’t permit me anyway to walk across the Khyber Pass.

I was ‘trekking’ to meet up with Rashid Dostum in his famous castle in Shibirghan (Jowzjan province) - via Tashkent to Termez on the Uzbek-Afghan border and into Afghanistan. For an Indian diplomat, it was an altogether unusual situation, having to walk across the Termez-Heiraton bridge across the Amu Darya (’no-man’s land&#8217 and cross into the Mujahideen-ruled Afghanistan with which India claimed ‘civilizational’ ties.

The sturdy bridge fenced by steel girders was built by the Soviets and it was actually a rail track that ended in the Afghan ‘port’ of Heiraton. Termez, of course, was a massive military base, which was the biggest in Soviet Central Asia and it coordinated the dispatch of supplies for the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. By the way, General Boris Gromov walked across the same bridge on a wind-swept winter morning as he personally led the last Soviet detachment out of Afghanistan in 1989. Thus, Afghanistan, technically speaking, is not entirely new to the fascinating world of the railways. Nonetheless, the opening of the railway connecting Heiraton with Mazar-i-Sharif is invariably suffused with certain poignancy.

The railway system promises to open up a new world to the Afghan people. As for that, it is the same anywhere, including for British India. The arrival of the railway system makes the stuff of legends. My wife’s ancestral home is full of memorabilia of the construction of the Bengal-Nagpur railway ['BNR'] — India’s equivalent of the 75-kilometre long Heiraton-Mazar-i-Sharif line — which was an incredible engineering feat at that time in very tough conditions, built in the early part of the last century by a carefully chosen team of British engineers deputed specially from London that included her grandfather, who, incidentally, went on to become the first chief engineer of the Indian railways in the British times. The folklore lingers on for generations, as any ‘railway family’ would testify.

Imagine an Afghan from Bamyan first taking a train journey with his wives and his pack of little sons and daughters; it could be as unspeakable an ecstasy as when he first glimpses the sea licking the shores with its waves. But the geopolitics of the Afghan railway system is going to be no less spell-bounding. Most observers are viewing the new line in Mazar-i-Sharif as a cog in the wheel of the Afghan war, which would facilitate quicker and cheaper transportation of the supplies for the NATO troops via Termez.

But behind that is unfolding a panorama that will change the face of Afghanistan phenomenally. I am speaking about the plans being worked out for an entire regional rail grid in which Afghanistan can act as the hub. Mainly, it is going to be the railway system that China is planning through Afghanistan that is destined to change the scope of the great game in the region over the Silk Road. The proposed line, which is already under construction in segments, originates from Xinjiang and enters Afghanistan via Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and can thereupon have two branch lines, leading to Iran and Pakistan respectively.

For China, the rail line opens a strategic link with the Persian Gulf and South Asia, bypassing Malacca Straits. If Pakistan plays its card carefully — and I can see that finally Pakistan is able to grasp the quintessence of the great game and is getting its act together — it will have a key role to play in China’s hugely ambitious plans of developing the Silk Road toward the ports of Karachi and Gwadar. By the way, the presidents of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan who met in Moscow early this week exchanged notes on how to expedite the proposed railway line connecting China with Afghanistan.

The picture that emerges is that the region has begun looking beyond the Afghan war. Where does that leave India? A big question, indeed. We just had our famous ‘trialteral’ with US and Japan. But, will it help us in our region?

Instead of Pax Americana, the prospects are brightening actually for a regional concord between Russia, China, Pakistan and Iran as the underpinning of stability and security for Afghanistan. It really requires a ‘leap of faith’ for Indian pundits to grasp this geopolitical reality as it is unfolding slowly but inexorably. Thus, India’s neighboring countries such as Sri Lanka or Bangladesh are gearing up for a ‘new ball game’, as it were — and, Sri Lanka is already getting close to being one of Asia’s middle income countries.
Posted in Diplomacy, Politics.

Tagged with Silk Road.

By M K Bhadrakumar – December 22, 2011


It’s time to look beyond Afghan war - Indian Punchline

 

[K-Xeroid]

Good move, if China starts investing in Afghanistan, they ll make sure Pakistan doesn't destabilize Afghanistan anymore. Win for everyone, most importantly the Afghans.

I expected more mature statement from You Roybot as a senior member,
Where the world consider the Pakistan as Key player of stabilizing A-stan and here you are posting totally unrelated, unneccessary and unaccountable statements... Even your local media accepts the role of Pakistan in peace talk and sacrifieses given by Pakistan......
As far as China concern... I really congrats them and appriciate their positive role in the region....

 

[Archie]

Before Trolling

People need to understand the scale of Oil reserves won by China

How much days of oil do you think 87 Million barrels Provide
India's demand is about 1.2 Million Barrels a day while china's demand is more than twice that
Infact china can eat though the entire oil reserve won by them in less than 45 days

even if we assume the production 50000 barrels a day which is less than 1/3rd of production in India's Rajasthan Based oil field owned by Vedanta group

CNPC will probably empty the oil wells in Less than 5 yrs of start of Production , and at current rate 87 Million Barrels are worth approx 9 Billion USD , which is approx 40% of annual Indian Oil Import


All those who are comparing this Contract To Indian iron Ore contract
well India has Won right to Mine Iron ore worth 160 Billion USD , which is 40% of the 400 Billion Dollar worth of Iron ore in afganistan
And our investment in that Project will be worth 11 Billion USD

And no , we will not use Pakistan for Transit
But we will use Chabar Port in Iran being developed and the railway network connecting Afganistan with Iran which is being built by India

And You guys thought that we were only Investing in Afganistan and Iran , just to Annoy Pakistan and US

 

[53fd]

Before Trolling

People need to understand the scale of Oil reserves won by China

How much days of oil do you think 87 Million barrels Provide
India's demand is about 1.2 Million Barrels a day while china's demand is more than twice that
Infact china can eat though the entire oil reserve won by them in less than 45 days

even if we assume the production 50000 barrels a day which is less than 1/3rd of production in India's Rajasthan Based oil field owned by Vedanta group

CNPC will probably empty the oil wells in Less than 5 yrs of start of Production , and at current rate 87 Million Barrels are worth approx 9 Billion USD , which is approx 40% of annual Indian Oil Import


All those who are comparing this Contract To Indian iron Ore contract
well India has Won right to Mine Iron ore worth 160 Billion USD , which is 40% of the 400 Billion Dollar worth of Iron ore in afganistan
And our investment in that Project will be worth 11 Billion USD

And no , we will not use Pakistan for Transit
But we will use Chabar Port in Iran being developed and the railway network connecting Afganistan with Iran which is being built by India

And You guys thought that we were only Investing in Afganistan and Iran , just to Annoy Pakistan and US

The capacity of the Chabahar port is not even nearly enough (2.5 million tonnes per year), & won't be good enough for the iron ore project. It would also depend on the conditions of Iran & Afghanistan being stable, & they are not stable considering the fact that the Taliban have their strongholds in Nimroz, where the road network to Iran goes from. It is a project doomed to failure.

The contract China has won is just the beginning: it is the beginning of much bigger things, & it will begin the dominance of China inside Afghanistan & Central Asia.