Armies of Liberation

Earth Times

Sana’a - Attackers, believed to be tribesmen, blew up a major oil pipeline in western Yemen on Sunday, but there were no reports of casualties, police said. The explosion occurred in the Khawlan area, some 60 kilometres south-east of the capital Sana’a, where the pipeline runs to the Red Sea exporting facility of Rass Essa.

Witnesses said thick black smoke billowed over the blast scene for several hours following the explosion.

Police officials told Deutsche-Presse Agentur

Yemen the main source of illegal arms to Somalia: UN
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Jane Novak for the Yemen Times

SANA’A, Dec. 27— A UN investigation found Yemen is the primary source of arms and ammunition to Somalia which has been under an arms embargo since 1992. The panel of independent experts monitoring the embargo also reported arms smuggling from Yemen intersects with acts of piracy and human trafficking. The findings were presented in a December 10 report to the UN Security Council.

The report notes commercial weapons imports from Yemen supply Somali retail markets as well as opposition and criminal groups. The Yemeni government’s inability to stem the large scale arms trafficking is “a key obstacle to the restoration of peace and security to Somalia,” the panel found. The UN Security Council extended the monitoring group’s mandate for another year.

Yemen plans to refute the charges. SABA news agency dubbed the report “misleading” and noted that “smuggling weapons is sometimes associated with the arriving of displaced Somalis.” A Foreign Ministry statement said that one million Somali refugees in Yemen create an economic burden that “sometimes leads to social, security and health repercussions.” Nearly 50,000 Somali refugees made the maritime crossing to Yemen in 2008, authorities reported.

In prior years, about 30,000 Somalis migrated annually.

The UN report ties together weapons smuggling, human trafficking and piracy, noting some small boats used in acts of piracy also “move refugees and economic migrants from Somalia to Yemen, bringing arms and ammunition on the return journey,” Piracy in the waters between Yemen and Somalia spiked dramatically with over 100 pirate attacks and over 40 vessels captured by pirates this year. The authorities in Puntland and Somaliland told the UN monitoring group that “maritime traffic from Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden, remains their largest single source of arms.” Weapons purchased in Yemen are also smuggled to insurgent groups in Ethiopia, the investigation found. One intercepted shipment included 101 anti-tank mines, 100 hand grenades, 170 rocket-propelled grenade-7 rounds, and 170 boxes of 7.62 mm ammunition.

Increased activity by the Yemeni Coast Guard between Aden and al Mukalla impacted arms shipments from ports in the patrolled areas. However, the monitoring group found that the lack of regular patrols in al Mukalla “means that arms traffic continues unabated.” The group recommended capacity building programs for the Coast Guard and direct naval interdiction.

Yemen’s coast line extends 1906 km. The Coast Guard, created in 2003, is working towards taking control of Mocha and al Mukalla from the military. The Republican Guard and Central Security forces have authority at ports where the Coast Guard has limited presence. The Coast Guard has nine operational ships in a fleet of 15, and only two with deep water capacity.

Inadequate funding is an obstacle to increased capacity, Coast Guard Commander Ali Ahmed Ras’ee said in May.

The US provides some operational and training support and in 2004 donated seven patrol boats. With Italian financing, the Italian firm SELEX is implementing a coastal radar system that will eventually cover 450km of coast line including hot spots for piracy and smuggling.

Responding to the UN report, the Foreign Ministry said, “Yemen reiterates its readiness to cooperate with the UN and all regional concerned parties to fight piracy and all forms of weapon smuggling, the issues resulted due to the situation in Somalia where there is not a central government.”

Yemen has the second most heavily armed citizenry per capita after the United States. In August 2007, authorities implemented a ban against carrying weapons in cities and have confiscated over 150,000 weapons since the program began. Over 200 weapons shops were also closed.

Weapons smuggling from Yemen to Saudi Arabia is also a concern. In July, Saudi Arabia announced that in a three month period, border guards confiscated over a ton of explosives and a large number of arms including 13 rocket-propelled grenades, 99 sticks of dynamite, 100 fuses, 12 detonators, more than 100 guns and 15,000 cartridges.

Aden, Laziqia ports to be twined
LAZIQIA, Dec. 19 (Saba) - Yemen ambassador to Syria Abdul-Wahab Tawaf discussed on Friday with the governor of the Syrian city governorate of El-Laziqia the executive procedures of the Joint Yemeni-Syrian Committee regarding twining the two ports of Aden city and El-Laziqia as well as establishing a direct sea line between them.

The discussed the executive steps of the cabinet regarding Yemen’s joining to the Syrian-Jordanian Company for Maritime Navigation.

On the other hand, Tawaf also met with rector of Tashreen University of El-Laziqia Mohammed Muala and discussed with him situations of Yemeni students in the university and means of reinforcing scientific cooperation between Yemeni and Syrian universities

Republican decree appoints Yemen ambassador to Canada

[04 December 2008]

SANA’A, Dec. 04 (Saba) - Republican decree No. 288 for the year 2008 issued on Thursday appointing Khaled Mahfoudh Bahah ambassador of Yemen to Canada.

When you factor in the flood and the impact of piracy inhibiting the growth and diversification of the economy, things look really bad. The end of oil is coming but the drop in prices (124 to 55) is going to have an immediate impact. The failure to rationalize government expenditures is pathetic. Saleh recently was a shopping spree with Russia and China and just upgraded the Mig’s to enable the delivery of smart bombs.

Beeb

Yemen is facing an economic and political crisis as the country’s oil resources near exhaustion, a report by a London-based think-tank says.

The Royal Institute for International Affairs warns that instability there could expand a zone of lawlessness from northern Kenya to Saudi Arabia.

It describes Yemen’s democracy as “fragile” and points to armed conflicts with Islamists and tribal insurgents.

One diplomat says that the country’s prospects get worse every month.

The World Bank predicts that Yemen’s oil and gas revenues will plummet over the next two years and fall to zero by 2017 as supplies run out.

Given that they provide around 90% of the country’s exports, this could be catastrophic.

An unnamed energy expert is quoted in the report as saying that this points to economic collapse within four of five years time.

Democracy ‘distorted’

Although Yemen was the first democratic nation on the Arabian peninsula, its democracy is described as fragile and distorted by what the report calls the northern tribal system of patronage around President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The president is already facing Islamist insurgents as well as conflicts with tribal groups, and must stand down in 2013 after 35 years in power.

The report concludes with a grim warning that a failed state in Yemen could threaten stability across the region.

It says it could open the way to piracy, smuggling and a flourishing jihad with implications for the security of shipping routes and the transit of oil through the Suez Canal.

Yemen Post
Security forces in Aden released on Saturday members of the Labor Union Committee who were arrested at the Aden Container Terminal over the strike that was held by Aden port workers.

They were freed after a week in custody by the governors order.

However, the workers at the Aden Container Terminal have been striking for eight straight days in protest on feared injustice that they may have after the station was handed over to DP World.

They claim they know nothing about the agreement under which the terminal was taken over by the DP world and can’t decide over issues that concern them.

The workers have launched stages since the agreement was signed early this month, describing the deal as unfair and harms the interests of the whole country.

YO

Workers at the port of Aden have gone on strike in protest over new contracts issued by Dubai Ports World’s (DPW), the port’s new administration, said sources at the workers syndicate on Monday.

More than 90 per cent of the 600 workers at the ports of Caltex and Al Mualla have been on the strike since last Saturday, said workers representative Abdu Rabu Majda.

The strike came about one week after DPW began to operate the port of Aden following an agreement signed last July between the Yemeni government and DPW.

“The main reason behind the strike was the new contracts, which gave DPW the right to sack any worker. It also put all workers on six month probation,” Majda told the Yemen Observer.

Most of the 600 workers did not agree to the new contracts and went on strike, he said.

About seven workers chosen to represent their peers in negotiations with DPW and Yemeni authorities were arrested by security forces in Aden the first day of the strike. However Aref Al Muhairi, Director General of DPW, denied any problem at the port, and denied the implementation of new work conditions, saying the strike did not affect work at the port.

He said work stopped only for three hours at the beginning of the strike. “And within 48 hours everything will be as it was, we are operating 45 ports, and we know what we are doing,” Al Muhairi told the Yemen Observer.

“There is nothing new in the contracts, they were under discussions for four months with the Yemeni government,” he said. “For those who do not like to work with us, it’s up to them, they can go wherever they like,” he added.

Otay. Yemen Post:

Negotiations got underway to release 28 Yemeni fishermen who were held by Somali pirates off Socotra island in the Arab Sea four months ago, informed sources said.

The pirates held 33 Yemeni fishermen along with three boats, but they used one of the boats together with five of the fishermen on the boat and took the others away to continue piracy acts, the sources said.

The pirates have been seizing the fishermen and using them as human shields while using the boats for piracy acts.

Authorities informed international forces in the Indian ocean about the incident as the forces then launched a hunt for the pirates. Two pirates were killed in clashes with the international forces.

However, the fate of the fishermen is still unclear.

Some of the British forces located in the ocean were pursuing the pirates, who were seizing the five fishermen, but the pirates escaped and the fate of the fishermen has not been known yet.

Piracy has recently soared threatening the Gulf of Aden and the Arab Sea despite the multinational forces in the area.

Its going to get a bit crunchy.

Impoverished Yemen oil revenues up in third quarter

SANAA (AFP) — Yemen, one of the world’s poorest nations, has earned 3.8 billion dollars from oil revenues in the third quarter, an increase of 86 percent over last year, a central bank report published on Saturday said.

Yemen produced 35 million barrels of crude oil between July and September, an increase of 11 percent compared to the same period in 2007, according to the report published by Yemeni newspapers.

It said that the average price of a barrel of crude oil was set at 112 dollars against an average of 66 dollars in the comparable period.

The impoverished Arabian Peninsula country of around 20 million inhabitants exports more than half the oil it produces.

Yemen is neither a member of the giant oil cartel OPEC nor of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC).

There’s been labor problems at the port of Aden for over a year. News Yemen

ADEN, NewsYemen

More than 500 workers in the Aden Containers Terminal (ACT) resumed Sunday a general strike in protest to an agreement signed between the government and the Dubai Ports International Company (DPI) to operate the ACT.

Workers said the agreement does not care about them and their position is not defined. They expressed fears being fired by the DPI administration or being rights-deprived.

Board chairman of the Gulf of Aden Ports Company, key partner of DPI in operating the ACT, Mohammad Eyfan, said it is not the business of the government to solve the workers’ problems anymore after it had handed overt the ACT to DPI. Eyfan described the worker’s strike as “mess” and that DPI is able to dissolve the problem of workers as DPI has experiences in 43 terminals around the world.

Workers suspended the strike on Saturday after the deputy governor of Aden, the Social Affairs and Labor Office in Aden and the office of the General Authority for Aden Free Zones promised them to discuss their requests and find satisfactory solutions.

DPI has not offered any statement on the strike until writing this report.

More, there hasn’t been a lot of coverage.

Yemen Post
As soon DP World, Aden-Dubai Company for Ports Development, announced officially last Thursday taking over management operations in Aden Container Terminal, the containers terminal workers started a comprehensive strike within the terminal premises.

(Read on …)

Meanwhile Port workers are on strike.

YahooDUBAI (AFP) – The Emirati DP World group said on Thursday it has officially taken over container operations at the Yemeni port of Aden in a joint venture partnership with the Yemen Gulf of Aden Port Corporation.

“The agreement includes the lease of both Aden Container Terminal and of nearby Ma’alla Container Terminal, and a commitment by the joint venture to invest around 220 million dollars in further developing the port,” it said in a statement.

(Read on …)

Prices are down to about 60 in November from over 120 in July. Where they stabilize or when is an ongoing question, as is whether the oil revenue reliant Yemeni state can weather the storm.

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Nov. 5 – With a total of 1.5 trillion Yemeni Riyals the Yemeni government approved the budget for the fiscal year 2009 in an exceptional meeting yesterday. The public expenditure was estimated at YR 1.9 trillion, yielding a 7 percent of Domestic Gross Product as a net deficit of the budget.

The government had apologized earlier to the parliament for delaying the presentation of the public budget for the upcoming year, which is typically due two months before the end of 2008. Demanding a chance to review the financial plan, the government attributed the setback to the importance of reconsidering budget projects due to the global financial crisis.

Parliament members Sakhr Al-Wajih and Nabil Basha stressed the importance of determining a deadline to present the budget, as parliament members would be on a long vacation beginning from December to the end of January. Al-Wajih added that the government’s demand is logical, as the budget was drawn up on the basis of the old high prices of oil and should be reviewed again as oil prices have decreased notably during the past few weeks. In a related matter, the parliament discussed the financial committee’s report on the global financial crisis and its consequences on the Yemeni economy, summarizing the effects of the crisis and decrease of oil prices on the country’s revenues, payments and trade scales which witnessed a surplus this year due to high oil prices that exceeded USD 146 a barrel. The committee also expected that foreign support and loans will be reduced.

The committee’s report said that the Yemeni monetary reserve is safe as it was deposited in various world banks. In addition, it said that the monetary reserve deposited in the U.S. is safe from the financial crisis as it was invested through the Federal Reserve Bank, and pointed out that the amount of money in the U.S. represents only 1.7 percent of the total monetary reserve of the country.

European countries in which the Yemeni monetary reserve is invested have assured the Yemeni government that their deposits are safe in the banks. Up to 69 percent of the Yemeni reserve is in U.S. dollars, 20 percent in Euros and 9 percent in British pounds and the rest in other currencies, according to the report.

(Read on …)

What is it this time? Demanding the release of state held hostages, oil jobs or wells?

News Yemen A group of tribes in Mareb have by force closed a number of oil wells in province, local sources in Mareb said.

The sources said that armed tribes locked Thursday 10 wells in Raidan block and three wells in Monkem block. They said ten security vehicles were immediately sent to unlock the wells.

A security source told NY the incident was a destructive act, confirming that three wells have been unlocked.

NewsYemen could not contact with the security director of Mareb for more details.

The drop in oil prices will undermine the government budget and the system of payola. Yemen Post

Economy professor Abdullah Al-A’dhi told the Yemen Post that the current financial crisis across the world, especially in America, will directly affect the Yemeni economy which is directly tied to the U.S. Dollar.

Al-A’dhi continued that the disengagement from the U.S. Dollar could reduce the direct effects on the country’s economy as the value of dollar is falling before European currencies, particularly the Euro, stressing that we should diversify our basket of currency.

“Yemen will get directly affected by the fall of the U.S. dollar because the country’s exports, mostly oil, are sold in this currency. Any forced devaluation of the U.S. Dollar will devalue the exports,” said Al-A’dhi.

(Read on …)

mm

The French petroleum company Total has signed an agreement with the Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) to farm into onshore exploration Block 70 (Attaq Area, Shabwa Province) in Yemen with an interest of 30.875 percent, a company statement said. This agreement has been approved by the Yemeni Ministry of Oil and Minerals.
Block 70, which covers an area of 1,367 square kilometers, is located in the south-eastern part of Central Yemen’s Marib Basin.
Already Yemen’s leading foreign investor, with this acquisition Total will increase its portfolio of exploration acreage in the country, beyond its recently acquired interests in Blocks 69 and 71, and will bring its technical expertise to the Block 70 consortium the statement said.
Present in Yemen for more than 20 years, Total is the operator of Block 10, East Shabwa and holds several other participations in oil exploration and production blocks, the statement said.

FT: Soco International on Monday announced the sale of its operation in Yemen to Sinochem, China’s state-run oil trader, $465m…..

The Yemen assets sold by Soco to the Chinese group comprise a 16.8 per cent stake in the East Shabwa area. The licence is operated by Total. Net proven reserves attributable to Soco’s stake are put at 18.7m barrels with a working interest of over 6,300 b/d. In 2006 the asset generated pre-tax profit of $55m on turnover of $76m.

CC: SANAA (Reuters) - An oil pipeline was blown up in Yemen on Friday but caused no disruption to production and more than 10 tribesmen had been arrested in connection with the incident, a security official said.

The official, who declined to be named, said Islamist militants were not believed to have been involved and that the damaged section of the pipeline, about 50 km (30 miles) east of the capital Sanaa, had been repaired.

Yemen Times

local and international reports indicate that fisheries are one of Yemen’s potential sources of wealth after its oil supplies are depleted.

(Read on …)

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Aug. 3 — A parliamentary report reveals corruption over the past two years at Aden Oil Refineries, a company belonging to the Yemeni government. Prepared by the Parliament-affiliated Oil and Minerals Development Committee, the report indicates that corruption at Aden Oil Refineries “consumed $200 million from public finances.” The committee prepared its report in light of its field visits to the refineries over the past four years.

Based on analysis of figures in the public budget and the Central Monitoring Apparatus, the results indicate that corruption was rampant within the administration of Aden Oil Refineries, one of the region’s oldest established energy companies. The oil refinery dismissed the report as “mere personal speculation.”

(Read on …)

Yemen Post

A report by the Oil Committee at Parliament indicated that the private sector in Yemen failed to establish and build one refinery in Dhabah in Ras Isa area, despite the different privileges it was granted together with the time period lasting for eight years.

It also announced that some commercial houses seek to privatize Aden Port Refinery and accused them of playing with the numbers and distorting facts for achieving certain ends.

(Read on …)

The YSB?

SAN’A, Yemen: A Yemeni security official says that recently detained members of al-Qaida have confessed to plans to attack oil facilities in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

The official says authorities “obtained during interrogation” confessions from 15 militants arrested after a shootout earlier this week in the town of Tarim in Hadramawt province.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

He says Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz was dispatched to Yemen after learning about the confessions. Riyadh did not comment on Nayef’s visit.

The following article says the YSB group was responsible for pretty much all the recent attacks attacks, including the three mortar attacks in Sana’a, the three suicide bombings and the attacks on the Belguin tourists. And makes the point that some predict, “The international community, mainly the US, will approve of government plans to prioritise security rather than democracy.” (furthering the ultimate Talibanization of Yemen)

SANA’A // The killing this week by Yemeni security forces of a key al Qa’eda mastermind will initially sow confusion among the group, but is likely to provoke a violent backlash, an analyst said.

“This operation is a big blow to al Qa’eda and will, of course, invite an angry response from al Qa’eda to retaliate. It is clear now the confrontation between the government and al Qa’eda is open,” said Saeed Thabet, a political analyst who follows Islamist movements.

Yemeni authorities announced on Aug 12 that Hamza al Quaiti, al Qa’eda in Yemen’s number two, was killed along with five other terror suspects in a shoot-out with police the previous day in Tarim, in south-eastern Hadramaut province.

Another two suspected militants were wounded and arrested by police. Two police officers were killed in the clash.

The ministry of interior has blamed Quaiti for masterminding several terror attacks in Yemen in recent months, including four car bomb attacks and an attack on Belgian tourists in Hadramaut on Jan 18 that killed two Belgian women and two Yemeni drivers. The ministry has also accused Quaiti of being behind the US Embassy bombing in March. The attack killed a security guard and wounded 13 students at a nearby school.

(Read on …)

Im surprised they take credit when they miss so much…

Yemen Times

Two embassies, two tourist groups, two oil facilities and six security checkpoints were targeted
Al-Qaeda claims rocket attack on oil constructions in Mareb

SANA’A, July 6 — An armed group— allegedly affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula— declared last week that it was responsible for a rocket attack that targeted an oil construction in Marib, located to the northeast of Sana’a.

According to a press release attributed to the so-called “Yemen Warriors Battalions,” armed Islamists launched three Katyusha rackets on the Safer oil refinery in Marib on June 25 with the goal of “rupturing the artery of Zionist - Crusader supply.” The press release didn’t mention the success or the failure of the attack, which came less than a month after a similar attack that targeted oil refineries in Aden.

Al-Qaeda armed operations have been increasing since the suicide bombing that targeted a Spanish tourist group in Marib last July, especially in the governorates of Marib and Hadramout.

(Read on …)

The numbers are all wrong, and the scenario espoused doesn’t fit the physical reality. There was an IED, not a pipe failure, and the amount spilled could never amount the the numbers presented in Parliament. If there’s 420,000 barrels of oil missing, its probably on a tanker, not in the ground.

al-Sahwa

Sahwa Net – A Yemeni parliamentarian, Abdul-Karim Jadban, accused on Tuesday the French company, Total, of wasting 420,000 barrels of oil worth 11 billion and 700 thousand Yemeni rials, affirming in the meantime, that the firm manipulated international standards of oil pipelines which, in part, led to leak amounts of oil in March 2008 and spoil environment.

On the other hand, Jadban further revealed that the UK firm Dove Energy had embezzled 11 billion and 423 million Yemeni rials, asking the Oil and Minerals Minister about the realities of referring the firm to a public fund court.

How do we go from 1000 barrels leaked to 420,000 barrels wasted, ’splain please.

SANA’A, NewsYemen

Member of the Parliament Abdul-Karim Jadban asked at the Parliament’s session on Tuesday the Minister of Oil and Minerals about 420,000 barrels of oil that he claimed wasted by the French TOTAL last March.

Jadban accused TOTAL of “playing with international specifications of oil pipelines that led to the explosion of a pipeline that has been linking block 10 to block 14 last March 14, 2008.”

Jadban said the explosion cost Yemen YR 11.7 billion and that the production stopped from March 27 to April 5, 2008. He added that a quantity of oil estimated at 1000 barrels leaked out and that “may destroy the environment.”

Update: “Near” the pipeline, missed again according to al-Motamar

Mareb Press

The oil pipelines in al-Buriqa zone, Aden, were hit by three missiles by unknown people.

Aden refinement is located in al-Buriqa Zone.

A security source told Mareb Press that there are no casualties. The source added tha the missiles targeted the oil pipelines.

The security authorities are still investigating the incident, the source added.

Some sources said that AlQaeda organization may be behind the attack.

(Read on …)

I dont have a catagory for pirate attacks.

Japan oil tanker attacked off Yemen

TOKYO (AP) — An unidentified ship fired on a Japanese oil tanker Monday off the eastern coast of Yemen, leaving a hole from which hundreds of gallons of fuel leaked, the ship’s operator said. No one was injured.

The 150,000-ton tanker Takayama was attacked about 270 miles off the coast of Aden in southwestern Yemen while it was heading for Saudi Arabia, its Japanese operator, Nippon Yusen K.K., said in a statement.

None of its 23 crew members — seven Japanese and 16 Filipinos — was injured, the company said. The tanker had left the South Korean port of Ulsan on April 4.

Nippon Yusen spokeswoman Yuko Tsutsui said the attack left a 1-inch hole in the tanker’s stern which was temporarily patched after hundreds of gallons of fuel leaked.

She said the tanker was heading to Aden for repairs, and its itinerary could change depending on the extent of the damage.

Yukio Yamashita, a Transport Ministry official in charge of crisis management, said the area is considered prone to pirate attacks.

He said the unknown attacker had left the scene.

Kyodo News agency said the tanker was hit by a rocket fired from a small boat.

Foreign investment is going to suffer

SANAA, April 10 (Reuters) - A blast shook an area near the headquarters of Canadian oil company Nexen in the Yemeni capital Sanaa early on Thursday but there were no casualties, a Yemeni security official said. A second explosive device was disarmed, the official told Reuters.

SANA’A, Yemen — There have been two explosions close to the Canadian Nexen Inc. oil exploration building in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, but no injuries have been reported, a company spokeswoman said Thursday.

“We are taking all the necessary precautions to keep our employees safe,” Carla Yuill said. “We have moved a lot of our employees from the Sana’a office to some of our field operations.”

Yuill said in an interview from Calgary that the explosions happened Wednesday and last Sunday. A third explosive device has also been found and disarmed. Yuill said she doesn’t know yet whether the building was the intended target of the explosions.

There have been some historical incidents of conflict that have gone on in Sana’a but, for our company, we’ve had relatively peaceful operations there,” she said. Nexen started began oil exploration in Sana’a in 1988 and started producing oil there in 1993. The company operates the country’s largest oil project and produced 71,600 barrels per day in 2007.

Yemen Obsever

A bomb exploded early on Thursday outside the offices of a Canadian oil firm in Hadda Street, in the Yemeni capital Sana’a. The blast caused minor damage to the wall of the building of the largest oil company operating in Yemen, Canadian Nexen Petroleum. It caused no causalities according to eyewitnesses.

A police officer at the scene said that the improvised device was tossed into the corner of a cinema adjacent to the company’s building. He said a second bomb was found by the door of a nearby restaurant and defused. The incident comes just days after another attack, attributed to al-Qaeda, on a residential complex housing western workers in Sana’a last Sunday. This prompted the US Embassy in Sana’a to release a statement on Tuesday that non-essential staff will be evacuated from Sana’a immediately.

A gas tender, a Parlimentary speakership and a Minstry, the boyz sold their postions cheap. Yes, dissappointing.

Yemen Times

These challenges facing the tribally-backed regime have pushed Saleh not to forward concrete actions, but revamp cracks in his tribal coalitions with Al-Ahmar family. Suddenly, the president was able to normalize his relationship with the sons of Al-Ahmar, extending a gas tender to Hamid, appointing another as vice speaker of Parliament and another as deputy minister of sports and youth. Hussein, who set up the tribal National Solidarity Council to irritate the regime, has been seen on TV with the president in some events.

This attests to Saleh’s allegations that these vocal and critical “boys” want their share of the cake and nothing more. Yes, this is the question. This restructuring of the tribal coalition is meant to challenge disturbances in Sa’ada and in the southern provinces. It is a coalition against the public’s demands. People were naively fooled when they believed that the sons of Sheikh al-Ahmar would side by the public and their pains.

Saleh has tried to develop a loose coalition with the tribe and Al-Ahmar family in particular but found it difficult, and therefore preferred to compromise with the new young leaders of Hashid. Such a technique might serve to extend the hold up of his regime, which is going through hard times, but will not rein in the outrageous people who felt disappointed in the man who promised to improve their living standards in the 2006 elections and now tells them to drink “sea water,” a gesture of recklessness.

At the same time, the protesters demanding separation are serving the regime’s interests, for the people are not in favor of separation. The solution to our problems which are embroiling the country into turmoil is not splitting again into south and north. The country cannot simply split into north and south. It would rather mean complete disintegration and fragmentation of the whole country, which means a bleak future for everybody, without exception.

Now, as the country is on the edge of a precipice, concrete solutions are urgently needed before it is too late and everything falls apart.

Yahoo

LONDON, March 31 - The $2.64 billion financing backing Yemen’s liquefied natural gas project has launched to syndication, banking sources said on Monday.

French oil company Total , is the main sponsor for the $4 billion liquefaction plant in the port of Balhaf on the southern coast of Yemen. It will be able to produce 6.7 million tonnes per year of LNG.

The project financing comprises a $1.44 billion senior limited recourse facility — so-called because lenders are repaid from project cashflows and have limited recourse to the sponsors’ balance sheets — as well as a $1.2 billion loan that has a guarantee from Total.

The $1.44 billion facility is split between a $750 million bank-funded term loan, and three other bank-funded loans with guarantees from one of three export credit agencies — Export-Import Bank of Korea , Nippon Export and Investment Insurance and France’s Coface.

In addition, Japan Bank for International Co-operation and KEXIM are together expected to provide direct loans of $360 million.

The Coface loan totals $450 million, the KEXIM loan is $160 million and the NEXI tranche is $80 million. All three have a maturity of 15.75 years.

The $750 million, 11.75-year uncovered loan carries a margin of 165 basis points over LIBOR during construction and for three years post-construction, stepping up to 180 bps for the following three years and 210 bps thereafter, a banker said.

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, ING, Royal Bank of Scotland, Societe Generale and SMBC are initial mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners on the $1.44 billion and $1.2 billion facilities, with Calyon joining the lenders on the Total-guaranteed loan.

Yemen LNG has agreed three 20-year sales contracts for its output with Korea Gas Corp, Total Gas & Power and Suez LNG Trading.

As well as Total, the project is sponsored by U.S. Hunt Oil, Yemen Gas Co, SK Energy Co, Korea Gas Corp, the General Authority for Social Security and Pensions of Yemen and Hyundai

News Yemen

SANA’A,NewsYemen

Minister of Transportation Khalid Ibrahim al-Qazeer has stated that the Singaporean Company OPM has handed over the Aden Containers Terminal (ACT) to Aden Gulf Seaports Corporation to run it, official news agency reported Tuesday.

Al-Wazeer said OPM’s contract with the Yemeni government has run out and that Aden Gulf Seaports Corporation will launch operating the ACT in corporation with international experts until the Aden Gulf Seaports Corporation and Dubai International Seaports Company finish establishing a joint company to run the ACT based on a contract signed between the two in this regard.

“Some measures should be taken before the joint company receives the ACT, such measures are expected to be completed within two months,” said al-Wazeer.

The government Aden Gulf Seaports Corporation and Dubai International Seaports Company singed last March 9, a contract to set a joint company to develop the performance of Aden Containers Terminal and port of Mualla.

OPM Aden, associated with Overseas Port Management (S) Pte Ltd, called (OPM Singapore), won a one-year contract from April 2004 to operate and manage Aden Container Terminal (ACT).

The AQY vid claimed they mortared the pipelines.

UPI

SANAA, Yemen, April 1 (UPI) — Yemen says a pipeline was damaged by a “technical fault” and not a terrorist attack as had been previously reported.

An official in Yemen’s Oil Ministry told the Platts energy information service an alleged incident on a pipeline last Thursday was not terrorist-related.

Yemen’s oil production is around 300,000 barrels per day, and not expected to increase for another two years. It’s a hotbed for Islamic fundamentalism.

The SITE Intelligence Group said a jihadist Web site it monitors took credit for bombing a pipeline in central Yemen, operated by Total of France.

“Investigations on the incident are still being conducted and nothing official has been announced yet,” the official told Platts. “It appeared according to the preliminary indications that it is a technical fault in the pipeline.”

The Jund al-Yemen Brigade has also claimed responsibility for other terrorist attacks in Yemen, including a March 18 explosion at a girl’s school.

Yemen’s oil sector has also come under fire before.

“Since the attacks on the USS Cole in 2000, several other foreign interests, specifically oil interests, have been attacked,” according to the Yemen report by the Energy Information Administration, the data arm of the U.S. Energy Department. “These include the bombing of the Limburg oil tanker off the coast of Yemen, causing a massive fire and the leakage of 150,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden; an unsuccessful firing of a surface-to-air missile at an oil company helicopter in 2002; the 2006 foiled suicide bomb attempt against two oil facilities just prior to the elections; and the more recent attacks on oil company personnel near the border between Marib and Shabwa governorates. In addition, there have been reports of violence in rural areas, attacks on oil company personnel and kidnappings.”

Yemen Post

Eritrean authorities deployed last week 32 Yemeni fishermen in two wrecking boats and sources indicated that the fishermen arrived in Al-Hodeidah’s Midi Port in a critical condition because of the inhumanly treatment by the Eritrean authorities.

The sources mentioned that Eritrean authorities arrested the 32 fishermen along with their four boats while they were fishing in Yemen’s regional waters. The fishermen were jailed in Eritrea and they were forced to pay fines.

The Eritrean authorities also confiscated the caught fish, fishing equipments and foodstuffs on the boats. Further, they sent them back home over two wrecking boats and this posed a great danger to their lives especially when they traveled for about 200 km.

Almotamar.net, Saba - Yemen has refused Monday to sign an agreement with the United States of America over the installation of two radioactive surveillance stations at Aden and Hodeidah ports.

Well-informed sources were quoted by almotamar.net as saying that a ministerial committee, was formed to look into the matter with help of experts from Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Public Health and Population, Transportation, Higher Education and Scientific Research and Legal Affairs, asked the government not to sign the agreement with the U.S. for the establishment of the surveillance stations because of their bad consequences, affirming the terms of the agreement were in favor of the U.S.

The draft agreement provided that any cooperation between Yemen and any other country in this regard should be under the US observation.

Moreover, the draft agreement was considered as political obligation by Yemen.

In April 2007, the cabinet saw a memorandum submitted by Electricity and Energy Ministry over the installation of two US radioactive surveillance stations at the Aden and Hodeida ports and approved the formation of a committee to look into the matter.

Hasn’t this been under construction for like five years?

Iran, Yemen Discuss Power Cooperation

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian deputy power minister and his visiting Yemeni counterpart in a meeting here in Tehran explored avenues for implementing an agreement held earlier by the two sides on energy cooperation.

According to the agreement signed between the Iranian Transport Stations Company and Yemen Electricity Corporation, the Iranian company would provide assistance in supplying power to the Marib Gas Power Station project.

Also during the meeting, the Yemeni deputy minister handed over a letter from his country’s Electricity and Energy Minister Mustafa Bahran to Iran’s Power Minister Parviz Fattah underlining the need for mutual cooperation in the field of electricity.

Alsahwa.net

March 11, 2008- Yemeni recently released fishermen have revealed that they were subject to military trials after they were arrested by Eritrean authorities in Yemen’s regional water.

They affirmed to Alsahwa.net that they appealed the Yemeni authorities to shoulder their responsibilities towards their buddies currently imprisoned in the Eritrean jails.

They further confirmed they were released after they paid fines and confiscating their assets.

The fishermen demanded the government and local and international human rights organizations and media to consider their issue ,emphasizing that they were severely treated by the Eritrean authorizes without explanations.

Investors sought for Yemen LNG
Tuesday 11 March 2008 / Marebpress

With costs skyrocketing around the globe, the Total-led consortium developing the Yemen LNG project is believed to be seeking investors for help with ballooning capital expenditures for the facility, which have now reached up to $4bn.

The project financing consists of a $1.44bn senior limited recourse facility that would be paid back to investors when the plant begins generating revenue and a $1.2bn loan that would be guaranteed by Total.

The $1.44bn loan will be split between three export-credit agencies, consisting of Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM), Nippon Export and Investment Insurance and France’s Coface. Japan Bank for International Co-operation (J