Armies of Liberation

In the first half of the story, South Korea was paying well under fair market price since 2005 despite opposition and activists strenuous objections.

Yemen LNG and Total Gas LIFT gas shipments redirected to Korea
[18 / February / 2012] Saba

Agreed Yemen LNG, Total Gas & Power to increase the number of shipments transferred by 20 shipments per year to Korea during the years 2012.2013 and 2014 m due to the continued low gas prices in the U.S. market.

Under the new agreement which was signed in Paris on the fourteenth of February, the ongoing presence of the Minister of Oil and Minerals Engineer Hisham Sharaf Abdullah, will be selling LNG to Kogas, according to the current price of the market. (Read on …)

The seven AQAP killed in Azzam, Shabwa included Egyptian Ibrahim al Banna who was among 28 arrested in Hadramout in 2008. The group was put on trial in 2010 for forming an armed gang; seven of the 28 were tried in absentia and its unclear whether al Banna still was in custody or not. An article written at the time of the trial ties him to Iraqi al Qaeda. Also killed in the strike were Anwar al Awlaki’s son and cousin, the ABC article notes. A June drone strike in the same area killed Abu al Harithy Jr. of the Zarchawi cell that admitted fighting in Iraq and was tried in 2006; the court accepted their defense argument that jihad is a duty in occupied Muslim lands. Update: Tribal leaders said that Farhan al Quso also was killed in the attack. He is the brother of Fahd Mohammed al-Quso, a particularly elusive Al Qaeda fugitive who helped plan the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole attack.

WaPo: Yemeni officials familiar with the U.S. military drive against al-Qaida in Yemen said a shift of strategy by the Americans was finally yielding results, with human assets on the ground directly providing actionable intelligence to U.S. commanders rather than relying entirely on Yemen’s security agencies the Americans had long considered inefficient or even suspected of leaking word on planned operations. They said there were as many as 3,000 informers on the U.S. payroll around the country — some without even knowing it.

The terrorists targeted a pipeline in Shabwa carrying LNG from Marib to Balhaf in retaliation.

ABC The head of the media department of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been killed in a trio of US air strikes on militant outposts in Yemen, and gunmen retaliated by blowing up a gas export pipeline.

The death of Ibrahim al-Banna, an Egyptian described by Yemeni officials as high on their wanted list, is a fresh blow to the Islamist group regarded by Washington as the most serious threat to the United States, following the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki last month…The ministry confirmed al-Banna was among seven suspected Al Qaeda militants killed, adding that he was wanted “internationally” for “planning attacks both inside and outside Yemen.”

Al-Banna was “in charge of the media arm of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” and was one of the group’s “most dangerous operatives,” it added….

Residents and officials said the 322-kilometre pipeline, which links gas fields in Maarib, east of Sanaa, to a $US4.5 billion Total-led liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, was blown up soon after the raids.

Sources at Total told Reuters the pipeline was blown up in two places, stopping the gas supplies that feed the Belhaf LNG plant. Witnesses said the flames were visible from several kilometres away.

Early Saturday, a local security official told Xinhua that a pipeline carrying gas from Marib to liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Balhaf port was blown up in Shabwa province.”The targeted gas pipeline located in Rodhoum area, a few miles away from the location of the French giant TOTAL-led Yemeni LNG Company in Balhaf port in southeast province of Shabwa,” the official told Xinhua by phone.
“The bombing took place on Saturday at about 1:30 a.m. local time, just a few hours after Yemeni warplanes hit hideouts of al- Qaida militants in neighboring towns of Azzan and Rawda,” he said on condition of anonymity. The official blamed al-Qaida for the attack.

An engineer of TOTAL-led Yemeni LNG company confirmed to Xinhua the bombing of the company’s gas pipeline. “Huge fire at the hit pipeline can be seen from miles away and the company already suspended gas production,” he said.

Handy for them that the French amb is out of town, either expelled or on vacation, and RG commander and presidential son, Ahmed Saleh has open hostility to all French visitors since French officials issued statements of support for the rev. YLNG is the biggest money maker in Yemen, and TOTAL owns 39%.

If one more person tells me that AQAP will disappear when Saleh is gone, I think my head will explode. While there certainly is substantial overlap and facilitation between the two, it doesn’t matter in the outcome or for the victims.

Al Qaeda takes over new town close to huge gas project
Source : Xinhua,07/09/2011 via Nasser Arrabye

SANAA,-Al-Qaida militants Tuesday seized Rowda town in Yemen’s southeast province of Shabwa, a few miles away from the location of TOTAL-led Yemeni Liquefied Natural Gas ( LNG) Company, a provincial security official told Xinhua.

“The militants of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) took over Rowda town following fierce battles with government forces backed by the Yemeni air force,” the official said on condition of anonymity. (Read on …)

The southern military commander, Maj.Gen. Mahdi Maqualah, Supreme Commander of Southern Region, has been accused many times in directly aiding the AQAP forces in Abyan, as a political tactic to support Saleh. In this case, residents (fishermen and gas station employees) in Shakra, the third Abyan city to fall to al Qaeda, are surprised at the large quantities of oil that AQAP moves repetitively through checkpoints since the beginning of hostilities. There is some collusion by the director of the Aden refinery (again nothing new, the refinery has been a source of AQ funding for a decade). The rest of the Yemen is experiencing severe fuel shortages.

via Yemen Portal blocked sites;

08-22-2011 08:03 www.algnoubal-hur.com: Involvement of the military zone in the southern Abyan events .. The forces transferred Abyan get fuel from plants is facilitated by the government Madawa Elahwal

A number in the city of Saedua, Shakra in Abyan province are extremely surprised by the facilities obtained by the al-Qaeda forces and transferred in the show (Abyan), particularly in obtaining large quantities of oil derivatives on a daily basis in order to facilitate the movement and control of the city .. the quantities of up to more than (five thousand liters) per day on average. (Read on …)

Not even to mention the fuel shortage in Yemen, the contracts with China explain a lot about China’s Security Council position regarding thwarting strong statements and actions against the Saleh regime. (The French Co Total owns 39% of YLNG and sold itself 1/3 of production. the contracts to South Korea are well under market price, as I wrote in 2005.) China of course makes no pretense to support democracy and works corrupt systems very well. Some of the original LNG contracts were renegotiated since the last time I checked them, and China is getting 11 cargos in 2011 and two other buyers have not been revealed. Nifty. In 2010, 10 were shipped to China. Production started in 2008 and have produced 100 shiploads by March 2010. China is Yemen’s main export partner, accounting for 23% of all exports. Chinese trade in January-November 2010 reached US$ 3,664,062,000, up 69.2 per cent year on year. Beyond buying oil, China ships weapons to Yemen. Now we know why the Chinese media is always shilling for Saleh.

China may receive a spot cargo of liquefied natural gas from Yemen today, according to ship- tracking data.

China National Offshore Oil Corp.’s Guangdong terminal may get the fuel from Balhaf, Yemen, on the Maersk Arwa on Aug. 10, according to ship transmissions captured today by AISLive on Bloomberg. It received a cargo on Aug. 8 on the LNG River Orashi, possibly from Bonny LNG in Nigeria, the data show.

ah, article from Feb, 24 2011 a nd more below the fold:

ICIS Yemen LNG expects to ship 57 cargoes to Asia in 2011 in a combination of spot, mid-term and long-term sales, Jean-Pierre Cave, commercial and shipping manager with the company, said during a presentation of LNG Summit in Seoul on Thursday. (Read on …)

Many residents believe its a pressure tactic. the JMP is also blaming the regime. Collective punishment is a usual characteristic of Saleh’s response to unrest. Others note increased rates of smuggling but this article points to a cut pipeline and roads blocked by tribesmen. It may be a lingering effect from the missile strike that killed Sheikh al Shabwani.

Gulf Times: Though Yemen’s oil exports are a modest 105,000 barrels per day, its cash-strapped government depends on the revenue to pay civil servants, its army and fund most state operations. (Read on …)

People’s Daily: Al-Qaida militants on Tuesday gunned down a security colonel working at the Yemen LNG company in southern Shabwa province, local official said.

“Gunmen of al-Qaida in Shabwa’s provincial capital city of Ataq intercepted the car of Colonel Ali Thwaba, who is also the security director of foreign oil and gas companies in Yemen LNG company in Balhaf city port, and shot him dead,” the official told Xinhua by phone on condition of anonymity.

TOTAL is selling one third of the gas for a profit to its subsidiary TotalGas which resells it for a profit to various customers. In this case shipments are being diverted from the US to Asia for higher prices, but no US companies have contracts with TOTAL itself.

26 Sept: Sana’a: Yemen LNG Co, partly owned by France’s Total, plans to increase liquefied natural gas output by 30 per cent next year, the managing director said. (Read on …)

Aaron notes its a South Korean pipeline. South Korea divested some of its holding in the LNG project after the lethal terror attack on the South Koran tourists in March 09. And France’s TOTAL is the developer of the LNG project and a major stake holder. France was recently warned by the Saudis about an AQAP plot and is on alert. Just a coincidence I’m sure.

Korean Times:
Tuesday’s explosion at a South Korean oil pipeline in southern Yemen was apparently a bomb attack, raising concerns about the safety of Koreans abroad. There is no confirmation about who was behind the blast and what prompted it, although al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has claimed responsibility for the bombing….Yemen has already emerged as a breeding ground for al-Qaida terrorists. Four South Korean tourists were killed in a bomb attack in the historic city of Shibam, 90 kilometers east of the Yemeni capital Sanaa on March 15, 2009. About three months later, a Korean female aid worker was killed by rebels.

(Read on …)

The Yemeni government first denied it and then said there were limited damages

Yemen Post Unidentified attackers bombed on Monday the pipeline transporting LNG from Marib Province to the exporting port in Balhaf, Shabwa, a local official said.

Explosive devices were used in the bombing, the official said as they did not rule out Al-Qaeda was behind the attack and gave no details about damages. (Read on …)

Huge losses to the Yemeni treasury, I wonder who got the graft? In 2006 the South Korean delegation came home crowing about the excellent deal with Yemen. After recently threatening to renegotiate the contracts, Yemen now says it will stand by them. This is a very interesting article, one of the contracts has a floor and ceiling price.

Businessweek

une 18 (Bloomberg) — Yemen LNG Co. will honor its liquefied natural gas contracts with buyers including Total SA, GDF Suez SA and Korea Gas Corp., an official said, after the Middle Eastern state proposed to review them. (Read on …)

In 2006, I wrote an article called Yemen’s Natural Gas, Who Benefits? The answer was TOTAL, South Korea and whoever got the payola. It should be noted that TOTAL is in charge of the LNG project from development to sales, and TOTAL sold one third of the Liquefied Natural Gas to its subsidiary, TOTAL Gas.

My suggestion to counteract “the resource curse” was to adopt the Alaskan model for the oil and gas revenues and pay a dividend to every citizen, thwarting grand corruption, stimulating the economy and small business across a broad spectrum. But that was before the oil bottomed out entirely.

Yemen Post: President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered on Tuesday the Ministry of Oil and Minerals to reconsider contracts for selling liquefied natural gas LNG so that the prices cope with changes of global gas prices.

He also asked the government to conduct a comprehensive study on the policy of oil subsidies estimated at YR 510 billion annually.

The orders came when Saleh chaired the meeting of the Cabinet that focused on issues related to development and holding a national dialogue to address crucial national issues.

Moreover, Saleh urged to boost investment in oil, gas and minerals, fish and agriculture, rationalize the public spending and pay more attention to financial resources development.

After the meeting, Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi and Minister for Oil and Minerals Amir Salim Al-Aidrous met wit the South Korean ambassador to Yemen Won Ho Kwak and informed him of the decision.

Over two thirds of Yemen LNG goes to Europe, the United States and South Korea.

Yemen’s Natural Gas: Who Benefits? Jane Novak, Worldpress.org contributing editor, August 4, 2006

One way Yemen’s “resource curse” syndrome can be avoided, economists suggest, is to distribute the profits from the sales of natural resources directly to every citizen.

Freedom House recently noted Yemen as among the world’s most corrupt developing nations. With the personal interests of the ruling elite taking priority over national development, nearly half of Yemeni children are malnourished and out of school. Unemployment is high and medical services scarce. A looming water crisis threatens to destabilize the country. Claims of development are little more than government propaganda with the gap between the extremely rich and the extremely poor widening and infant mortality remaining high year after year.

Atop the existing national crisis, experts predict Yemen’s oil reserves, which provide nearly 70 percent of governmental revenue, will substantially deplete within a decade. A natural gas project is under development. Yemen LNG (YLNG), the company responsible for producing and marketing Yemen’s natural gas, will produce 6.7 million tons of natural gas annually for 20 years. Although the gas liquefaction plant and pipeline is 23 percent complete, concerns exist about sales prices, domestic allocation, and the project’s local impact.

Sales Prices

France’s energy giant, Total SA is the major shareholder in YLNG with 39.6 percent and is in the lead on the project. Total SA has touted YLNG as “a giant gas project” and noted that it is a main component of Total SA’s future growth. (Read on …)

SANAA – Fuel subsidies and tax evasion are the biggest strains on Yemen’s finances and need to be dealt with swiftly to allow the impoverished country to turn its economy around, the Yemeni finance minister said. (Read on …)

Just to avoid any confusion my August 2006 article, “Yemen’s Natural Gas, Who Benefits?” was reprinted today by Zarwa as a current 2009 article. The article’s points that remain valid, but at the same time, one hopes for growth in a three year interval and the global LNG market has changed substantially in the interum.

Yemen’s natural gas: Who benefits? (Read on …)

The gas, like the oil, is in the south. With the EITI agreement about to fall flat on its face from a lack of transparency about oil sales, prices and volume, one would expect the proceeds from the LNG sales to be stolen at a similar rate. Click here for my 2006 write up of some of the issues associated with the LNG project.

Yemen Times On Oct. 15, Yemen Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) announced the Company started producing from its liquefaction terminal in Balhaf, on the Gulf of Aden.

The Yemen LNG project is the largest and most important investment ever made in Yemen with an investment of around USD 4.5 billion. It consists of supplying gas from Block 18, located in the Marib region in central Yemen, through a 320 kilometre pipeline to the LNG plant located at the port of Balhaf on the Arab Sea, south east of Yemen.

The plant started production with the first train while the construction of the second train is being completed. The total production capacity will reach 6.7 million tons of LNG per year.
Launched in August 2005, the project shareholders are TOTAL (project leader) (39.62 percent), Yemen Gas Company (16.73 percent), Hunt Oil Company (17.22 percent), SK Energy Co., Ltd. (9.55 percent), KOGAS (6 percent), the General Authority for Social Security and Pensions of Yemen (5 percent) and Hyundai Corporation (5.88 percent).

SANAA, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Yemen, beset by internal strife and tumbling oil income, expects economic growth of 5 percent in 2009, with delays to gas exports putting an earlier 7 percent target beyond reach, a central bank official said on Thursday.

Ibrahim al-Nahari, sub-governor for foreign banking operations, told Reuters in an interview that gross domestic product (GDP) had expanded 4.66 percent last year…

Hisham Sharaf, vice minister for planning and international cooperation, told Reuters the unspent funds (ed-from the 2006 donors conference) total $3.2 billion, aside from aid from bilateral donors with existing programmes…

Oil revenue dropped 75 percent to $665 million in the first six months from the same period last year due to the combined impact of lower prices and declining production, Nahari said. (Read on …)

Thats good stuff indeed, and yes the ruling family has billions in the UAE. More on Yahya Saleh and MAZ below the fold, but there’s so many criss- cross relations between the Yemeni adminstration and corporate misconduct that its mind boggling.

Yemen Post

With the passage of time, the democratic project has turned to be a family one and “Al-Saleh” name has started to label all government, charity and officials activities, with wide media coverage financed by state funds as well as money obtained from businessmen. This clearly indicates that the state is following the Gulf family model.

Even the ruling party, the General People Congress (GPC), has turned to be a tool in the hand of the ruling family leaderships who control its policies, decisions and financial affairs.

Political Control through Economy
General Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh has started to show up in mass media as paying visits to some Gulf countries to meet with these states’ kings, Sheikhs and crown-princes. The last visit was made to Bahrain on April 25 and Ahmed had meetings with the crown prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

The recent issue of Al-Maz Company, which works as a subcontractor for Total Yemen, Total drivers revealed the way in which the sons of the ruling family obtain agency contracts from the largest oil companies. The company receives $1200 for each driver; but it just pays each one of them $225. Thus the company’s profits from the salaries of 100 drivers reach $97,000 a month.

Commissions of Protection and Partnership
Informed sources revealed that two sons from the ruling family received $40 million in commission for buying modern weapons from Dubai during the recent Russian Weapons Exhibition.

A military and economic affairs observer noted that a military leader from the ruling family got over $20 million in commissions for military deals over the years 1996 – 2005.

A Yemeni expatriate in United Arab Emirates quoted a senior Emirate official as saying that Yemeni officials from the ruling family invested over $15 billion in his country.

Land Plots and Farms
Feeling their importance, the ruling family sight has been directed towards lands and farms being one of the easiest ways, towards speedy enrichment. It is known that an influential from the ruling family owns over 150,000 Lebnah (Lebnah = 56 square meters).

Sheikh Tareq Al-Fadhli distributed plots of lands to senior officials; the areas of some plots come close to the area of a small country. They also have larger farms in Abs, Hajjah, Al-Hodeidah and Hadramout.

Army: External Gate
An observer reviewing the map of army and security will easily find that the leaders of these institutions belong to the ruling family or the areas neighboring the family’s homeland. They are assuming the leading posts in the Republican Guard, Special Guards Forces, Central Security, Air Forces, Military Areas and Brigades.

Informed sources also speak about thousands of soldiers enlisted in the payrolls but they never exist and their salaries, in millions, go to the leaders of military units in which such names are enlisted.

(Read on …)

Yemen Online

Coast Guard Forces and Border Guards integrated.
YemenOnline. Sunday 25, 2009 – The President of the Republic, H.E. Ali Salih, declared yesterday that the Coast Guard Forces and Border Guards are intended to be combined into one authority reporting to the Ministry of Interior.In his speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the Ministry of Interior Leadership’s 19th Conference under the motto “Homeland’s security is a national and collective responsibility”, he said” We have recruited 1000 soldiers to enhance security capacities of Coast Guard Forces (CGFs) in particular after the recent increase of marine piracy.” In addition, these forces are to be provided with the necessary arms and equipments.

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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.

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.