CNPC wins deal to develop Afghan oil

NEW DELHI - China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the nation's biggest oil and natural gas company, won a bid to develop an oilfield in northern Afghanistan, beating rivals from Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Pakistan.

President Hamid Karzai's cabinet late last month approved the Mines Ministry's decision to allow State-owned CNPC to drill for oil in three blocks of the Amu Darya basin, a geological zone that extends into Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, Jawad Omar, a ministry spokesman, said by telephone on Monday.

The award is China's second prominent acquisition of Afghan raw materials after the Metallurgical Corp of China won the right in 2007 to mine the country's biggest known copper deposit, at Aynak, south of Kabul.