Afghanistan, Russia Close to Agreement on LNG Transit

After the State Duma of the Russian Federation (the lower house of parliament) passed a law on December 17, 2024 to remove the Taliban movement from the list of terrorist organizations, Moscow and Kabul are preparing to sign an agreement “on transit through the territory of Afghanistan of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), which will be sent to the countries of Southeast Asia.”

Rustam Habibullin (pictured), director of the Center for Russian Business in Afghanistan, told the RIA Novosti news agency that “the agreement is planned to be signed at the International Economic Forum between Russia and member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which will be held in Kazan, Russia, in May 2025.”

Khabibulin recalled that Russia and Afghanistan had already signed similar agreements on the sidelines of the two previous Forums: in 2023 for the transit of 50 million tons of Russian oil products per year and in 2024 for the transit of 2 million tons of grain and flour per year.

The Taliban government is actively developing economic and trade cooperation with neighboring former Soviet republics in Central Asia. At the end of 2024, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan signed a 10-year agreement to produce natural gas from the 7,000 square kilometer Tuti-Maidan field in Afghanistan’s Faryab province. In the first year, Uzbekistan will invest 100 million dollars in gas production in Afghanistan, and the total investment over the next 10 years will be 1 billion dollars. The gas produced will be used mainly for power generation.