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July 30, 2012
(Reuters) - Yemen delivered its first oil shipment from the
Maarib pipeline to its Aden refinery after a nine-month halt that left the
poorest Arab country dependent on donations of fuel, an official from the
refinery told Reuters.
"The first shipment of 85,000
tonnes has been delivered on Saturday night from the Maarib pipeline to the
Aden refinery," the official said, declining to be named under briefing
rules.
The pipeline was shut after
attacks by tribesmen in 2011. Prior to the closure, it carried around 110,000
barrels per day of sweet, light crude to the Ras Isa export terminal on the Red
Sea coast, operated by state-owned SAFER.
The closure of the pipeline forced
Yemen's 150,000 bpd Aden refinery to shut, leaving the country more dependent
on imports and on donations from Saudi Arabia. Repairs to the pipeline were
completed and it resumed operating earlier in July.
"Our first priority is to
send oil to the refinery...and then the government will start to think about
exports," an official at SAFER said. He added that the first two or three
shipments from Maarib would be sent to the Aden refinery.
The total volume of the first
three shipments to the refinery is expected to be around 1.2 million tonnes of
crude, a shipping source in Aden said.
Continued instability in the
country, involving Islamic militants and disgruntled tribesmen, leaves oil and
gas pipelines vulnerable to further attacks. Insurgents were emboldened by a
decline in government control last year during protests that eventually ousted
longtime president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and seized several southern cities
before being driven out this year.
