The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum spokesman said on Tuesday that two new gas wells will be drilled in northern Jawzjan province this year and gas processing units will be installed alongside the wells in order to purify the gas on site.

The ministry’s spokesman Hamayoun Afghan said a gas pipeline of over 90 kms long, between Jawzjan and Balkh, will be completed and put into operation this year. “This year, we will try to complete the gas pipeline between Jawzjan and Balkh, and we will continue to dig new wells in the Yatem Taq area, and we will try to increase our production in order to increase our revenue,” he said.

He said currently 600 thousand cubic meters of gas is extracted and processed in Jawzjan province daily, but plans are in place to increase this to two million cubic meters per day.

“We are trying to buy new equipment to have a processing capacity of 2.5 million cubic meters of gas per day, and we are fully prepared to launch this project,” Afghan said.

The ministry did not however give any indication of whether agreements had been signed with private investors to extract the gas.

Khan Jan Alkozai, a member of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment (ACCI) said the country will benefit enormously if more investment is made in this sector.

“I think that there is a high capacity in the area of energy production from gas, and in the area of attracting investment in this area, the facilities should be provided,” said Alkozai.

Currently, there are gas fields in nine areas of Jawzjan province, including in Yatem Taq, Jarqaduk, Jangal Kalan, Khowaja Bolan and other areas.

Energy production is a priority for the Islamic Emirate as the government relies on neighboring countries to supply it with over 50% of its current electricity needs.

In addition to coal-fired energy production plants, the IEA is also encouraging investment in gas to electricity plants. This process in the country is not new, as one trailblazer has been successfully supplying electricity to hundreds of thousands of people for the past few years.

The company is Bayat Power, Afghanistan’s largest, Afghan-owned and operated power production company and it has the region’s most technologically advanced gas fired electric power plant.

Launched in 2019, this commercial operation provides reliable and affordable electric power to hundreds of thousands of people in the country.

Located in Sheberghan, in gas-rich Jawzjan province, Bayat Power has steadfastly aimed to provide essential power for Afghanistan’s economic growth.

Powered by a Siemens SGT-A45 ‘Fast Power’ turbine, the world’s most advanced mobile gas to energy power solution, phase one of Bayat Power-1’s operations generates up to 44 megawatts of power for Afghan homes and businesses.

To date, Bayat Power has delivered over 700 million kilowatts of domestic power to the Afghan grid.

However, Bayat Power hopes to eventually roll out three phases in total that will generate more than 200 megawatts of electricity – enough to serve millions of Afghan residential and commercial clients.