Taleban to revive defunct national oil company

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taleban movement is to revive the defunct national oil company to resume a long-abandoned quest for oil and gas, a Taleban official said on Saturday.

Mawlavi Ahmad Jan, mines and industries minister, told reporters that the reactivation of the Afghan National Oil Company, which the Soviets abolished after invading Afghanistan in 1979, would help revive the war-damaged economy.

``The company was established 20 years back by Afghan experts who had studied in the United States and Russia....and its revival will play an important role in exploration of gas and oil,'' Ahmad Jan said.

He did not say when the company would function again or where it might search for petroleum reserves.

He said the Soviets did not want any growth in Afghanistan's economy and closed down the national oil company to keep the nation dependent upon Moscow.

Afghanistan used to export gas to the Soviet Union through a pipeline but this was closed after the communist-backed government in Kabul fell in the early 1990s.

France's Total used to be involved in oil exploration in Paktika province in the south bordering Pakistan and Herat to the west, close to the Iranian border.

But the company was banned from Afghanistan by the Soviets after preliminary work showing that both provinces had rich oil reserves, the minister said.

``The document which we have shows that there is lot of oil in Katawar and in Ahmad Abad of Herat which is only 40 km away from Iran ... among the many oil wells there is one in Herat with a depth of 600 metres and people have extracted oil from it,'' he said. He gave no further details.

Ahmad Jan said Afghans abroad and foreign oil and gas companies had promised to cooperate with the Taleban as soon as the national oil company resumed work.

He said that in a few weeks a delegation from a foreign oil company would visit Afghanistan for an evaluation but did not name the company involved.