Review of Afghanistan developments
At first glance, the new agreement between Delta International and Afghanistan appears to be a straightforward oil and gas exploration and extraction deal. Valued initially at $200 million and signed for 25 years, the agreement covers the Kushk-Tirpul oil and gas basin in the western Afghan provinces of Herat and Badghis.
But when the broader agreements and plans announced alongside the deal are considered together, a much larger picture begins to emerge.
The issue goes beyond the discovery of Afghanistan’s oil and gas resources or an Afghanistan oil and gas deal with the Taliban government. The plans include studying the use of natural gas for industry and power generation in Herat, examining the construction of a roughly 700-kilometer pipeline from Herat toward the Spin Boldak area of Kandahar, near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, exploring investment in the TAPI gas pipeline, increasing Turkmenistan’s gas production capacity, and even establishing a gas hub in Pakistan’s Gwadar.
Within this broader framework, the real significance of the development lies not simply in the initial value of the contract, but in the geography of energy and the regional networks that could eventually emerge around it.
From this perspective, the entry of Saudi-based Delta International into Afghanistan could be seen as an important indication of efforts to redefine the country’s economic role. Afghanistan, long viewed primarily as a landlocked country and a missing link in regional infrastructure projects, could gradually become a connector between Central Asian energy resources and the energy markets of South Asia.
Delta International’s Afghanistan deal: $200 million or a potential $50 billion?
The agreement signed on September 7, 2026, between Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum and Delta International has an initial value of $200 million. According to the ministry, the agreement covers the Kushk-Tirpul area, includes an eight-year exploration period, and has a total contract term of 25 years. The designated area covers approximately 22,000 square kilometers and consists of seven blocks.
At the same time, some media reports have referred to a potential $50 billion investment by the Saudi company in Afghanistan. This much larger figure relates to a potential and conditional plan to develop an integrated energy chain.
Reports concerning statements by Delta International have referred to approximately $50 billion in potential investment over a 25-year period. The company has stressed, however, that the realization of such investments would depend on exploration results, technical and economic studies, financing, the necessary approvals, and final investment decisions.
One of the related projects attracting Delta’s interest is the proposed Herat-Kandahar gas pipeline, which alone could require potential investment of around $10 billion. Such an investment would likewise depend on proving sufficient reserves, establishing technical and economic feasibility, and securing financing.
Therefore, the $50 billion figure should not be interpreted as an investment that has already been made or as a firm financial commitment. Its significance, even as a conditional plan, lies in what it suggests about Delta’s approach to Afghanistan.
Rather than viewing the country solely as a single exploration project, Delta International appears to be examining Afghanistan as a potential energy ecosystem. That perspective significantly changes the geoeconomic meaning of the investment.
From oil and gas exploration to an integrated energy platform in Afghanistan
The agreements and plans surrounding Delta International can broadly be viewed through three layers of the energy value chain:
Upstream: exploration and development of oil and gas resources;
Midstream: gas transportation and pipeline infrastructure;
Downstream: the use of gas in industry, power generation, and urban consumption in Herat.
This distinction is important.
At the first stage, the company needs to determine how much commercially recoverable oil and gas Afghanistan actually possesses. This is the stage covered by the current $200 million agreement.
If exploration produces commercially viable results, the economic value of the project could become considerably larger at the second stage. How will the gas be transported? Where will it go? What network will connect it to regional markets? And who will finance the infrastructure required to move it?
At the third stage, the question becomes whether the gas will simply be exported or converted into greater economic value inside Afghanistan—for example, through electricity generation, industrial energy supply, and the creation of domestic demand.
This is broadly consistent with the strategy Delta International describes for its energy business. The company presents itself as an integrated energy platform operating across exploration and production, pipelines, storage, power generation, gas sales, and LNG. In Afghanistan, its projects have likewise been discussed in terms of the upstream, midstream, and downstream segments.
The significance of Delta’s presence in Afghanistan, therefore, should not be understood simply as an exploration project. It could represent an attempt to build a broader gas value chain in Afghanistan.
From CentGas to TAPI: Afghanistan’s role in regional gas connectivity
In the 1990s, the U.S. company Unocal and Delta, as part of the CentGas consortium, pursued plans to transport Turkmen gas through Afghanistan to Pakistan and eventually India. The project was halted amid Afghanistan’s political and security instability.
Years later, a similar concept was pursued through the TAPI pipeline—Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India—under an intergovernmental framework involving the four countries.
TAPI is planned as a roughly 1,800-kilometer pipeline with a designed capacity of nearly 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Afghanistan would benefit not only from its transit role but also from access to gas and transit revenues.
CentGas and TAPI are not the same project. However, both are based on a common geoeconomic logic: connecting Central Asian gas resources with high-demand South Asian markets through Afghanistan.
This history becomes particularly significant when viewed alongside Delta’s new plans.
Delta International is now associated with a project referred to as CENTGAZ – Corridor of Prosperity, while also expressing interest in developing Afghanistan’s gas resources, the proposed Herat–Spin Boldak pipeline, purchasing TAPI gas, and potentially establishing a gas hub in Gwadar.
The trend suggests that Afghanistan’s geography retains much of the strategic value it held three decades ago. But this time, the country could potentially be viewed as more than a transit route.
Afghanistan could become a producer, consumer, and transit country at the same time.
If such a network were eventually established, Afghanistan’s strategic advantage would lie not only in its underground resources but also in its location between Central Asia’s energy-producing countries and the major markets of South Asia.
Why Delta International is interested in Afghanistan’s oil and gas sector
In its corporate positioning, Delta International describes its interest in frontier and underdeveloped energy regions—areas where infrastructure remains incomplete but geological potential and opportunities for early entry exist.
The company also identifies an integrated gas development model as a key element of its strategy. The idea is to use a gas resource to generate multiple revenue streams, ranging from domestic sales and power generation to transit and exports.
This strategy has particular relevance to Afghanistan.
Afghanistan combines potential natural resources, limited infrastructure, and a strategically important geographic position. For a conservative investor, this combination could represent an exceptionally high-risk environment. But for a company that specializes in entering frontier and underdeveloped markets, those same conditions could form part of the investment opportunity.
The broader significance of the Saudi Arabia Afghanistan oil deal therefore lies in whether Delta can move beyond resource exploration and connect production with infrastructure, domestic consumption, and regional markets.
Zalmay Khalilzad’s role in the Delta International Taliban agreement
The presence of Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. ambassador and special representative for Afghanistan, during the process surrounding the agreement between Delta International and the Taliban government is noteworthy.
Khalilzad was present both at meetings related to Delta and Taliban officials and at the ceremony marking the signing of the $200 million agreement.
However, the available information does not establish that he is acting on behalf of the U.S. government or that he has an official mandate to direct Western investment into Afghanistan.
This should therefore be examined as a geopolitical hypothesis rather than an established fact.
One possibility is that Khalilzad’s long experience with Afghanistan and his political and economic networks in the region have led Delta to engage him as an adviser or intermediary.
Another possibility is that his involvement forms part of a broader effort by certain economic and political circles to prevent Afghanistan’s investment environment from becoming dominated by one or a small number of foreign actors.
But without further independent evidence concerning his precise role, these possibilities cannot be treated as established conclusions.
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Conclusion: Delta International and Afghanistan’s emerging energy geography
What makes Delta International’s entry into Afghanistan significant is the potential connection between exploration in the Kushk-Tirpul oil and gas basin, the development of transportation infrastructure, domestic gas consumption in Afghanistan, and access to regional energy markets.
If even part of these plans moves into implementation, Afghanistan could evolve from being merely a transit country in regional infrastructure projects into an active link in the energy chain connecting Central Asia with South Asia.
There remains, of course, a substantial gap between potential and economic reality. Exploration results, infrastructure requirements, financing, political conditions, regulatory approvals, and market demand will all determine whether these ambitions can be realized.
Yet the combination of Delta International’s recent initiatives suggests that Afghanistan is once again emerging as an important geoeconomic position in the region’s energy calculations.
The significance of the development, therefore, may ultimately lie not in the initial $200 million agreement alone, but in whether it becomes the starting point for a much broader energy network linking Afghanistan’s resources and geography with the markets of the wider region.