KABUL, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan caretaker government has decided to extract crude oil from the Qashqari oil basin in the northern Sari Pul province to increase local products and create job opportunities, said a statement released here Saturday.
The process began on Thursday after a ceremony and the first phase would see a daily production of 200 tons of crude oil, said the statement released by the Information and Culture department of Sari Pul province.
Speaking at the ceremony, Acting Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar said that the income generated from the production would be collected to the country's central bank.
The acting deputy prime minister, however, didn't say if the crude oil would be refined inside the country or sent abroad.
This is the second major economic project inaugurated over the past month in the country. Earlier, Baradar inaugurated the construction of a 285 km-long water canal in northern Balkh province that could irrigate 550,000 hectares of land. ■