Excavation of gas well completed in Jawzjan

The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum announced Sunday that excavation of Well no. 36 located at the Yatim Taq gas field in Jawzjan province is completed.

The ministry said in a statement that after drilling the well to the depth of 1600km the gas extraction has been functioning.

This is the second gas well that the ministry has managed to excavate in the past 40 years.

In April, the ministry had succeeded in extracting the natural gas after excavating the well no. 32 to a depth of 1500km.

The natural gas extracted from both wells is expected to be put to use in different areas including supplying to some local companies such as Bayat Power and Ghazanfar Group.

“From the extracted gas, Bayat, Power and Ghazanfar Group power generation plants, Mazar-e-Sharif fertilizer and electricity factories and other consumers will be supplied,” the statement said.

Bayat Power, Afghanistan’s largest, Afghan-owned and operated Power Production Company, is one of the local companies that has invested in electricity production utilizing natural gas.

In November 2019 the company officially started the commercial operations of its vital and historic mission to provide reliable and affordable electric power from Bayat Power-1, the region’s most technologically advanced gas-fired electric power plant and Afghanistan’s first new gas-based power production plant in more than forty years, to the people of Afghanistan.

The power plant is located in Sherberghan of Jawzjan province and provides the power essential for Afghanistan’s economic growth.

The use of natural gas in energy production, specifically by Bayat Power has the potential to boost domestic energy production to 200MW as planned, provided Afghan Gas can deliver the much-needed fuel to operate the state of the art SGT-A45 Siemen’s turbines, which are the first to be deployed worldwide, in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum stated that both wells are expected to result in the extraction of 300,000 cubic meters of natural gas daily.

The MMP noted that extraction of the gas from these refinery wells would add 8 million US dollar revenue to Afghanistan’s yearly income.

In addition, it has been estimated the refineries will generate jobs for 250 people.