Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund's speech at the contract signing ceremony for the oil extraction in the Amu River field

In the name of Allah, the most Merciful.

(Nahmaduhu WanaSwali Ala Rassulihi Alkarim.) All the praise be to Allah and His blessings on His Messenger.

I'd like to extend a hearty welcome and greetings to all of the guests, both domestic and foreign, as well as the officials of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, who have come to the contract signing ceremony of Amu River oil extraction. As you know, by the grace of Allah, Afghanistan is a wealthy country in terms of natural resources. In addition to other minerals, oil is the wealth of the Afghan people on which the economy of the country can rely. There are major oil fields called Afghan-Tajik, Amu River, Herat, Helmand and Katawaz, with estimated crude oil reserves reaching 1.8 billion barrels. The oil reserves of Qashqai in Sar-e-Pul province are located in an important part of the Amu Darya basin, with an extractive capacity of oil worth $150,000 in 24 hours. Qashqari's oil reserves contract was signed with a Chinese company during the last administration, too. However, the company could not come to Afghanistan to start the project due to various reasons. Immediately after seizing power, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan requested the company to come and begin the implementation of the project. But company did not come to implement the project. Consequently, the Economic Commission determined that, in the event that the company encountered difficulties, the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum should assume control of the wells and begin oil extraction, which thankfully occurred and we ourselves began the extraction of oil from the Qashqari wells. Of course, discussions with the private sector over the extraction of oil from the Qashqari wells persisted. Fortunately, we are now taking part in the transfer of the mining management to the private sector. As the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, I assure the contractor of full cooperation. All related government agencies will fully assist the contractor in conducting their work. We have already asked the contractor to carry out the extraction of oil from Qashqari wells in accordance with international standards. We ask the contractor to be sincere in providing social services to the people of Sar-e-Pul province and pay close attention to the environment and economic security of the people of Sar-e-Pul. Similarly, we have instructed the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum to carefully monitor the implementation of the terms of the contract and ensure good progress of the affairs, and if they face any problems in their affairs, they should share them with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs. We will be quite supportive to help them run their operations smoothly.

I'm going to end my speech here with the hope of a prosperous Afghanistan.