SHIBERGHAN (Pajhwok): Initial work on a thermal power plant with capacity of producing 200 megawatts of electricity has been launched in northern Jawzjan province, officials said on Tuesday.
A Turkish company has been awarded the contract to complete the $37 million USAID-funded project, which would electrify villages in Sar-i-Pul, Faryab, Balkh, Samangan and Jawzjan.
MAZAR-I-SHARIF (PAN): An oil-processing plant owned by the Ghazanfar Group has resumed activities after four months of closure at the Hairatan port in northern Balkh province, officials said on Monday.
Having the capacity of refining 500 tons of oil annually, the facility resumed operation in the presence of a number of high government officials on Sunday.
KABUL (PAN): Kabul residents complain of rising liquefied gas rates in the city, but Ministry of Commerce and Industries says it has huge stocks and will not allow any price hike.
Residents the current rainfall saw the price of one kilogram of gas shooting up from 45afs to 60-65afs. They blamed the government for the sudden rise, demanding price stability and regulation.
LASHKARGAH (PAN): Acting on an intelligence report, police have unearthed another factory producing low-quality petroleum in Lashkargah, the capital of southern Helmand province, officials said on Wednesday.
Police raided the factory late on Tuesday in the Ahmad Shahi Mena area and detained six workers, said Col. Juma Gul Himmat, the deputy police chief.
He added the factory owner named Haji Painda Khan escaped and efforts were being made to arrest him.
SHIBARGHAN (PAN): Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum on Thursday returned 50 boxes of explosives belonging to the Mines and Petroleum Department of northwestern Jawzjan province to the authorities, three months after the explosives had gone missing.
After the explosives meant for extracting mineral deposits disappeared, Jawzjan attorney office arrested the petroleum and mines department director, Qutbuddin Qaim, along with a military official.
KABUL (PAN): Kabul and Ashgabat have signed a contract on gas sales and purchase on the sidelines of the 17th Steering Committee Meeting on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India TAPI Project, the foreign ministry said here on Saturday.
Held on July 9 in Ashgabat, the meeting was hosted and chaired by Turkmenistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Khojamukhamedov and attended by the ministers of petroleum and mines, ambassadors of member countries.
KABUL (PAN): Indian would provide grant assistance for the establishment of a national mining institute in the Kabul in near future, Hamid Karzai’s office said on Sunday.
The promise was held out by S. Ramadorawi, the TATA group director and advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, at a meeting with President Karzai.
A statement from the Presidential Palace quoted Ramadorawi as saying the grant for the mining institute had been promised by Singh during his last visit to Kabul.
KABUL (PAN) President Hamid Karzai on Saturday urged Turkey for greater investment in exploring fuel and gas resources in Afghanistan and expanded economic cooperation.
During a meeting with Turkish Energy Minister Yildiz in Kabul, Karzai stressed enhanced political interaction with brotherly nation, the Presidential Palace said.
MAZAR-I-SHARIF (PAN): One thousands tonnes of liquefied gas will be supplied today to Kabul and another 500 tonnes to northern provinces from the Hairatan Port in northern Balkh province, an official said on Tuesday.
The supply would help overcome the gas shortage and reduce the commodity price, the spokesman for the Balkh governor, Munir Farhad, told Pajhwok Afghan News.
HERAT CITY (PAN): Canadian experts have launched a survey based on satellite images to assess gas reserves in northern parts of western Herat province, an official said on Wednesday.
The reserves were found in Kashk-i-Kohna, Rabat Sangi and Gulran districts, bordering Turkmenistan and Iran, the governor's spokesman, Mohiuddin Noori, told Pajhwok Afghan News.
