(MENAFN) The joint oil project between Afghanistan and China came to a stop less than a year since production began. The temporary shut down came to be due to no existing transit agreement to refine the oil, The Peninsula Qatar reported. The project is between China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) International and Afghanistan's Watan Oil and Gas. The project started producing last October in the Amu Darya basin. Currently, most of the Chinese staff working in the project had left and equipment was locked up. A move that is temporary to save money, said Jalil Jumriany, policy director at the Ministry of Mines in Kabul. A possible agreement to refine the produced oil in Uzbekistan is being negotiated. "We are waiting for a transit agreement with the Uzbek government," Jumriany said.