The head of the Afg-China Oil and Gas Ltd in a meeting with the acting Minister of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP), Shahabuddin Delawar, said that with the operation of 24 new wells, the amount of oil being produced from the Amu Darya will surge to 2,000 tons on daily bases, according to a statement of the MoMP.

The spokesman for the MoMP, Hamayoun Afghan, said that Delawar stressed transparency in extraction of oil and gas from the Amu Darya area.

“There will be a standard company in oil processing. The engineers must be Afghans,” he said.

“Afghanistan is gradually reaching self-reliance in oil processing and gas. We are trying to get Afghanistan to self-reliance in the coming years,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, Islamic Emirate’s spokesman.

According to the statistics of the MoMP, there are five oil zones in Afghanistan and Amu Darya is considered the biggest among them.

The economists meanwhile said that the investment in the extraction of oil and gas is important in Afghanistan’s self-reliance in the field of oil and gas.

“Extraction of oil will not only provide thousands of vacancies for the people but will also increase the national revenue,” said Shakir Yaqoobi, an economist.

The deputy head of Afghanistan’s Chamber of Industry and Mines (ACIM), Sakhi Ahmad Payman, said that the oil processing needs to be conducted inside the country to help the Afghan economy improve.

“The oil filtering process should be established inside the country so that we can process the oil inside the country,” he said.