KABUL: Afghanistan has signed a contract with Saudi oil and gas company Delta International Energy to explore and extract hydrocarbons across a 22,000 sq. km basin in the country’s west. The $200 million deal was signed in Kabul on Monday by Mines and Petroleum Minister Hedayatullah Badri and Delta CEO Shaher Al-Taqi in the presence of Afghanistan’s top Taliban leadership and Zalmay Khalilzad, former US special representative for Afghanistan. The contract covers seven blocks in the Kushk-Tirpul oil and gas basin across Afghanistan’s western provinces of Herat and Badghis. The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said in a statement that the exploration period is set at eight years, while the contract will run for 25 years. With the extraction of oil and gas from the area, “Afghanistan will become self-sufficient,” Badri said after the signing. “We are working to create opportunities for investment in the assessment, exploration, prospecting and professional extraction of the country’s natural resources, and to make effective use of Afghanistan’s natural resources to promote economic growth, improve people’s welfare and create employment opportunities.” The investment comes as Afghanistan struggles with high unemployment, limited job opportunities and poverty, following the withdrawal of most foreign partners from the country in 2021, when the Taliban returned to power after the collapse of its Western-backed administration.  Khalilzad told reporters after the deal signing that it is an “indication that Afghanistan is ready for business” as it has been able to attract the large investment. “There’s been a vision for Afghanistan for some time for being a land bridge connecting Central Asia — a vast and important and rich in resources region — and South Asia, a region with a huge population, with a huge demand for resources. And Afghanistan will be the bridge that connects these two,” he said. “But in addition to being a bridge, now there is an expectation that Afghanistan itself can be a rich source of natural resources for the global market, particularly for South Asia. So, this is a very positive and promising development.” While the Saudi project in the long-term may bring huge investment to country when the extraction phase begins, in the short term it will have a significant effect in boosting morale, according to Sami Wahidi, a Kabul-based analyst and former engineer at the Energy Ministry. “This deal restores hope before a single job even appears. It lifts national morale just by proving the world still sees value in us and Afghanistan. “In the long term, this completely changes our regional standing: Afghanistan stops being a poor, landlocked battleground and becomes a rich energy hub.”