Sana’a: Yemen resumed pumping crude through its main oil export pipeline on Saturday, two days after armed tribesmen blew it up in the latest attack on the country’s energy infrastructure, government officials and oil industry sources said.
Gulf | Yemen
Yemen resumes oil flow in main export pipeline
Assailants opened fire on repair engineers backed by government forces, but were repelled
- Reuters
- Published: 13:12 January 13, 2013
Yemen’s oil and gas pipelines have repeatedly been sabotaged by insurgents or angry tribesmen since anti-government protests in 2011 created a power vacuum in the Arabian Peninsula country, causing fuel shortages and slashing export earnings for the impoverished state.
Oil Ministry officials said that pumping resumed on Saturday morning after engineers, backed by Yemeni government forces, repaired the rupture in the pipeline caused by Thursday’s attack in the Serwah region in the central Maarib province.
“The assailants opened fire on the engineers to stop them from repairing the pipeline, but the force accompanying the engineers responded to the fire and chased the assailants away,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.
Yemen’s stability is a priority for the United States and its Gulf Arab allies because of its strategic position next to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and shipping lanes, and because it is home to one of the most active wings of Al Qaida.
Yemen resumed oil pumping on December 31 at a rate of around 70,000 barrels per day (bpd) after a previous round of repairs to a pipeline which had carried around 110,000 bpd of Marib light crude to an export terminal on the Red Sea before a spate of attacks began in 2011.
News Editor's choice
-
Three drown in Dubai and Ajman
Police warn swimmers to check conditions before entering the water
-
Scramble to help Indians workers in Saudi Arabia
External Affairs Minister Khurshid in Jeddah to help over 55,000 workers
-
Arranged marriages rejected by Bihar brides
Empowered girls saying no to 'unsuitable' grooms in social revolution