Armies of Liberation

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

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.

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 (JBIC) and KEXIM are together expected to provide direct loans of $360m.

The two-train liquefaction plant is currently under construction at the 20 square km site in the port city of Balhaf, on the southern coast of Yemen. If financing for the last leg of the project is secured, the project’s developers – Total 39.62%, Hunt Oil 17.22%, Yemen Gas Co. 16.73%, SK Corp. 9.55%, KOGAS 6%, Hyundai 5.88%, and General Authority for Social Security and Pensions 5% – expect the project to achieve commercial operation by the end of 2008 or early 2009.

Yemen LNG has signed three, 20-year purchase and sale agreements for 6.0 million mty from the 6.7-million-mty plant with buyers KOGAS, Total Gas & Power and Suez LNG Trading. Under the contract with KOGAS, first cargos of Yemeni LNG are expected to be delivered to KOGAS’ Inchon Terminal in South Korea in late 2008.

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

Source: Gasworld

Apparently Al-Sahwa accused the regime of re-selling gas donated by Saudi Arabia for the local Yemeni market.

almotamar.net – A source at the office of the prime minister condemned Thursday the series of lies published by the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) newspapers the latest of which fabrications reported Thursday by A-Sahwa newspaper on the government’s sides to sell quantities of gas offered by Saudi Arabia to support the Yemeni government’s efforts in enhancing the gas situation allover the county.

The source expressed his denunciation of such allegations of this newspaper or other papers and media of the JMP and their always lies against the government and the measures it takes for overcoming the economic challenges resulting from the state of instability in world markets of many basic commodities related to the living of the people and alleviation of their suffering.

The source affirmed that the government has the ability to stock and market quantities of gas offered by the Saudi brothers for meeting local needs of gas. He described the newspaper’s reports as mere lies. The source also expressed his denunciation of the lies that have become a state associated to statements of the JMP’ and his media and leaderships.

ah, here we go, from Al-Sahwa

January 17, 2008- Well-informed sources affirmed to Alsahwa.net that officials seeks to buy gas aid granted by Saudi to Yemen.

The sources affirmed that 3,000 out of 30,000 tons of Saudi gas had arrived to Aden port last Friday.

On the other hand, Sources affirmed that Yemen Gas Company allowed to Gas shops owners to buy a gas cylinder for more than its real price, YR 500.

Gas shops owners had threaten to strike if a percentage of prices is not allocated to them, so the government let them add new increase.

Is this a subsidy reduction? Or are they continuing the subsidy with public funds while pocketing the difference?

Al-Sahwa

January 2, 2008 – Well informed sources told Alsahwa.net that the government decided in its meeting held on Wednesday to raise gas prices to 25 percent.

Various Yemeni governorates witness a very sharp crisis of house gas.

The Yemeni Oil Ministry had declared that it would import domestic gas during the next years in order to meet the lack of domestic gas.

Meanwhile, economists considered such a government step a big failure, absence of strategic views and imbalance in taking decisions, pointing out that the government had signed a contracts of selling Yemeni gas with very low prices, emphasizing , in the meantime that the gas importation is a form of corruption of the ruling party’s government .

This is a good article from the Yemen Observer:

Yemenis welcomed the New Year with a sharp increase in propane gas prices. The government increased the price of a 20-liter cylinder of gas by 25 percent from YR400 to YR500 during its first meeting of 2008. “The increase was due to the increased price of gas in neighboring countries and the increase in international prices,” said Khalid Bahah, Minister of Oil and Minerals.

Bahah said that the government decided on this move due to the increase in gas prices in neighboring countries such as Somali and Djibouti, where prices have reached YR4200. “This increase will lead to the smuggling of gas to these countries and create a crisis,” Balah said, adding that smuggling would become more profitable than other necessary occupations, such as fishing. The gas price hike is also due to the spike in international prices which increased from $550 to $880 per ton as well as the increasing transportation costs which were raised from $70 to $130 per ton. These increases will strain the public budget Bahah said.

Currently the price of a gas cylinder is 17 percent of the actual price due to subsidies from the government. The real price for a 20-liter cylinder of gas is YR2360. With increasing gas prices, continued governmental subsidies for gas threaten to strain the public budget. Meanwhile consumption rate for gas increases annually by 6-8 percent. “Yemen produces 2,000 tons of gas daily and is preparing to set up a new laboratory with a capacity of 1,000 tons to face the rise in the rate of consumption,” Bahah said.

“Although the government supports the price of gas but the first beneficiary are not the people. Rather the traders of black market who smuggle gas to neighboring countries profit the most. The prices of gas in Saudi Arabia and Oman reached YR2000, and YR4200 in Somali and Djibouti,” said Dr. Najeeb al-Oge, Deputy General Manager of the Yemen Gas Company.

Yemen will receive around 30,000 tons of gas from Saudi Arabia next week as an endowment to help resolve the current gas crisis.

Al-Oge said that the governmental increase in the price of gas was small and would not substantially affect citizens economically. He added that the Yemen Gas Company had adopted a mechanism to distribute gas to people through direct selling from its trucks. This was implemented to create stability in the market and soon the Yemen Gas Company will sell gas to people in other governorates as well. Also many violators of market standards will be soon brought to court, according to al-Oge.

“Yemen is a developing country so any increase in basic materials such as gas will have many negative economic effects,” according to Dr. Taha al-Fosiel, economist at Sana’a University.

I was surprised to learn Russia is Yemen’s biggest creditor country.

How many years has it been that the regime is planning and publicizing another power station in Marib, four year?

Yemen Observer

The distinguished political relations between Yemen and Russia must be reflected at the level of economic relations and investment, said Sallah Mohamed Said al-Attar, Chairman of the General Authority for Investment. He called on Russian businessmen to invest in the energy field in Yemen, which is suffering from a large deficit.

“We must exploit the surge of financial power in Russia and due to the high prices of oil and gas invite Russian companies to work in Yemen,” said al-Attar during a meeting with a delegation of Russian businessmen.

Al-Attar said that the production of electrical power in Yemen would reach 1600 megawatts after a second electrical station in Marib has been opened which will produce 320-400 megawatts. Electricity gas stations will be established with a capacity of up to 800 megawatts, and there is a government direction to build five lines of liquefied gas from Marib to Ma’abar providing energy production. (Read on …)

There’s ten trillion cubic feet of confirmed natural gas reserves in Yemen of which Total pre-sold (to its own subsidiary and other corporate partners like South Korea) nine trillion cubic feet. The sale prices are below market levels according to South Korea.

Much of the gas was then resold by Total and the South Koreans to the US market for future delivery. Now we all know the money from the proceeds of the gas sales will probably be siphoned off, if you will excuse the pun, and never fund basic services for the Yemeni people.

But there still should be one trillion cubic feet of LNG for the domestic market in Yemen. (Although the domestic market needs much more for electricity, not to mention water desalinization.) So is Total doing some kind of favor to the people in Shabwa here with their “good idea”? Local electricity should have been a priority, not an afterthought. I think Total may be ripping off the gas at cheep prices, destroying the coral and fishing areas in Balhaf, and kicking back to everyone except the people who lost their livelihoods, homes, and ages.

SANA’A, NewsYemen

The Ministry of Oil and Minerals said that the French Total Company has adopted an idea to make use of gas at block 10 in Shabwa.

Total proposed that gas at block 10 in Shabwa might be used in generating electricity with capacity of 130 MW, in partnership with the ministry, said the undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil and Minerals Abdul-Malik Na’ama. He said that Total’s idea based on using 50 MW of such capacity to operate private institutions and selling other 80 MW for the Ministry of Electricity.

The Total also suggested to establish a gas station to produce cooking gas to reduce the current gas crisis and facing any future gas shortage, Na’ama told NewsYemen.

The project of gas station is underway and it may be ready after one month, he added.

Optimistic estimates counter gloomy reality

Yemen Times:

SANA’A , July 15 — According to Minister of Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Khalid Bahah, Yemen’s Oil and Gas prospects in 2009 is quite optimistic. Crude oil production is to reach 500,000 barrels per day; Extraction capacity from current reserves will increase from 30% to 70%; and income from sale of natural gas will reach US$ 1-2 billion per year.

During a recent interview with the Yemen Times, Mr. Khalid Bahah, Minister of Oil, Gas and Minerals stated that the current gradual decline in oil production is the result of Yemen’s reliance on two main blocks for the production of oil – block 18 Mareb and block 14 Masila. In addition, the country has been slow in drafting plans to compensate for the foreseeable decline in oil production. However, he stated that his ministry launched an extensive oil exploration campaign last year in order to regain an increase in oil production, emphasizing that the results of this exploration campaign will not be visible until 2009.

“We know that block 18 Mareb began production over 20 years ago, and the expectation for the last five years indicates that the current production of that block should be zero. This means that, in theory, there should be no production from block 18 Mareb now, and we should’ve been ready for this,” Mr. Bahah stated, adding, “Our current expectation is that Yemen’s oil production from these two main blocks will be zero by 2011. The difference is that now we have a number of prospects, and explorations in several new blocks are very promising.”

He also stated that previous explorations have been very slow and findings weren’t worth mentioning, adding that the current challenge is to stabilize and increase oil production within the next two years.He further revealed that the number of exploration blocks has increased from 26 blocks in 2006 to 40 blocks this year, and hopefully by next year if the success rate of exploration activities reaches an average of 25 percent, Yemen will be able to push production back to 400,000 barrels per day.

However, Mr. Bahah commented that Yemen’s target is to produce 500,000 barrels per day by 2009, and the strategy to reach that target is a realistic one and depends not only on heavy exploration activities, but also on the introduction of new technology, which will allow for an increase in production from the same blocks. He stated, “Current drilling and production technology allows you to extract around 30-35 percent of your oil reserves, however, new technological equipment will allow you to extract up to 70 percent of the oil reserves, which might potentially double production in particular blocks.”

In a statement made to Al-Thawra Official newspaper dated January 16, 2005, previous Minister of Oil, Dr. Rashed Baraba’a stated that geological surveys indicated that Yemen is about to launch a campaign to increase exploration activities and oil production from blocks 43, 9 and 20, adding that Yemen’s oil production will continue to increase. This was contrary to official reports, which indicated that Yemen’s oil production was suffering a gradual decline and that exploration activities were sluggish.

It is worth mentioning that the current production of block 18 Mareb stands at around 60,000 barrels per day, while block 14 Masila’s production stands at roughly 200,000 barrels per day. Yemen’s current oil reserves exceed four million barrels.

Yemen Times

After Yemen Liquefied Natural Gas (YLNG) selected Shabwa governorate’s Balhaf area for its company’s location, the area’s fishing environment was affected and residents began facing problems related to compensation and laborers’ jobs.

Area fishermen are demanding fair compensation, as they were banned from fishing around Balhaf and kept from their boat shelters in the area surrounding the company.

Although the liquefied natural gas project represents a large portion of Yemen’s income, Balhaf residents stress that their problems should be resolved properly, as the company has affected them greatly, both as fishermen and landowners. For this reason, the firm has implemented a program to provide area fishermen with a replacement fishing environment by installing fish aggregation devices and establishing breakwaters.

However, controversy continues regarding compensating landowners whose properties the company consumed either for construction or extending gas pipelines. (Read on …)

AS

Hundreds of workers protested Sunday before the French Gas Company after a French had desecrated Koran (the holy Muslim Book ) in Shabwa.

The correspondent of Alsahwanet said that the protesters set a helicopter, belonging to the company, on fire and destroyed the company’s facilities as well as several cars belonging to the company.

Some eyewitnesses affirmed to Alsahwanet that the security forces had intervened to calm the violence and evacuated the French engineer from the centre of the riot. They also said that the police had shot fire and that one protester was seriously injured ant taken immediately to hospital.

More: The violence began when a French employee at a natural gas liquefaction plant being constructed by Yemen LNG in the coastal city of Balhaf threw a copy of the Koran, Islam’s holy book, on the ground, a move that angered Yemeni workers at the plant site. The enraged Yemenis reacted by attacking the French employee and setting fire to a helicopter and a large number of vehicles inside the plant site, the officials said.

Related: Yemenia Promoting French Tourism

Sunday 25 March 2007

26 Septemper News

SANA’A March 25(26sep.net) Yemen Airways in French capital, Paris had organized an evaluation meeting for the French tourist market with the participation of travel and tourism agencies Yemeni market.

In the meeting which was held yesterday evening, Yemeni ambassador in France Ameer Al-Aiddarous had confirmed the importance of organizing this meeting to study French tourist market and the promotion of the features of tourist attractions in Yemen to enhance attracting the French tourists, as France has became on the tops of European countries that export tourism to Yemen.

More on the riot:

YO: riot broke out among 1,000 or so workers of the Yemeni LNG Company working in Balhalf at around 2 p.m. on Sunday, following a dispute between a French worker and a Yemeni worker. Press reports have suggested that the fights erupted after the French worker, who worked for a subcontractor involved with constructing the plant facilities, and whose name has not been released, desecrated the Holy Quran, outraging the Yemenis. (Read on …)

Hunt negotiating with China to sell LNG shares at twice the price that the Yemeni Oil Ministry previously sold shares to Kongas. hmmm
The sale price by Yemen to Kongas was 17 million per share;
The offer by China to Hunt is 33 million per share.

The standard, China CNOOC (0883), the largest offshore oil producer in China, is reportedly in talks aimed at acquiring a stake in a liquefied natural gas project in Yemen from US company Hunt Oil in a bid to secure its natural gas supply.
The Beijing-based oil producer has made a nonbinding offer of less than US$600 million (HK$4.68 billion) for Hunt’s 18 percent stake in the Middle East project, according to Dow Jones Newswires, which quoted an unnamed CNOOC official.

Contacted Friday by The Standard, a Beijing spokesman for CNOOC said: “As part of our company policy, we do not comment on market rumors.”

The first output from the LNG project in Yemen, near Saudi Arabia, is due at the end of 2008, with an annual volume of about 6.7 million tonnes.

Dow Jones reported that should Dallas, Texas-based Hunt decide to sell its stake, it would have to secure agreement from other shareholders of the Yemen project. Major shareholders include France’s Total, which owns 39.62 percent, Yemen Gas with 16.73 percent, and South Korea’s SK Corp with 9.55 percent.

CNOOC hopes to source more natural gas from overseas to supply its parent’s LNG terminal project in the mainland.

China, the world’s second-biggest oil consumer, is promoting the increased use of natural gas for both environmental and economic reasons, and has set a target of raising the country’s natural gas consumption to 8 percent by 2010.

Anybody remember this: Korean Gas Company (Kogas) purchased a 6 percent share of YLNG for $104 million in a transaction negotiated by Yemen’s Oil Ministry.

(This was the original link at the Yemen Observer, but since they trashed their archives, its dead.)

So Hunt offers 17% for 600,000 million vs Yemen sells 6% for 104,000 million. Looks like the Yemeni people got screwed on the first deal but I’m sure someone in Yemen made a lot of money.

Update: Security officials refute claims of threat and term deployment as normal exercises. No threat say the French.

JP:

Authorities increased security and shut down a southern port in Yemen on Thursday fearing al-Qaida suicide attacks on government and foreign interests, government officials said.

An Interior Ministry official said that army was deployed Thursday around government institutions and foreign oil installations after authorities received intelligence that the terror group was planning to carry out suicide attacks in Yemen. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

In the capital, streets leading to government security buildings were blocked, and military jeeps carrying soldiers with machine guns were deployed near foreign embassies, ambassadors’ residents and foreign gas and oil companies.

A maritime official in the southern port of Aden said security officials ordered the port to shut down fearing al-Qaida attacks.

The maritime official, who also asked to remain anonymous because he was not allowed to talk to the press, said authorities received suicide attack threats early Thursday that targeted the Aden port. He said boats and ships movements were stopped beginning in the morning.

Yemen’s southern port of Aden had witnessed previous al-Qaida attacks including the Oct. 12, 2000 USS Cole bombing that killed 17 American sailors as their ship was refueling.

Two years later, two suicide bombers rammed an explosive-laden boat into the French oil tanker Limburg, killing a Bulgarian crew member and spilling 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden.

Yemen was long a haven for Islamic militants. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, the government aligned itself with the US-led war on terrorism. But many diplomats and outside experts have raised questions about Yemen’s cooperation and inability to control tribal areas.

Also checks on cars going into Sanaa, YO:

Massive security and army deployment was reported in Aden during the day and early evening Thursday, in the wake of a terrorist threat to sensitive local and foreign installations. (Read on …)

I think its overstated but the two thwarted attacks don’t reflect well on the security issue.

18 Oct 2006 10:38 CEDT OPIC Concerned By Total-Led Yemen LNG Terror Risk-Sources

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, or OPIC, is concerned that a Total SA (TOT)-led Yemen LNG gas project it’s in talks to back financially, could face a USS Cole-type of attack, people familiar with the project’s risk assessment have said.

However, none of the people said the risk appeared to be enough to deter OPIC from supporting the project.

A spokesman for Yemen LNG said “we can confirm that security is a priority for Yemen LNG and the project has in place a security plan… in liaison with the Yemeni authorities.”

Concerns are surfacing as Yemen last month foiled an attempt by suicide bombers to blow up two oil installations with explosives-laden cars in near-simultaneous attacks, days after al-Qaida threatened to strike facilities in the Persian Gulf. However, the first liquefied-natural-gas, or LNG, exports won’t start before early 2009, according to Yemen LNG’s Website.

Spokespeople for OPIC and Total confirmed the U.S. public finance institution was in talks to back the $3.7 billion Yemeni LNG project. They declined to comment further. OPIC backs projects either through loans or political risk insurance.

People familiar with the assessment said OPIC has been concerned that terrorists could attack an LNG tanker departing from the project’s terminal, in a pattern similar to the USS Cole bombing. The U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer USS Cole was attacked on Oct. 12, 2000 in a suicide attack while it was harbored in the port of Aden. The explosion killed 17 sailors. Another person was killed in the attack on a French oil tanker, the Limburg, two years later.

But one person said the risk was actually seen as stronger along the coast of Somalia, where an Islamic movement has seized large parts of the country.

A 2004 study by Lockheed Martin Co.’s Sandia National Laboratories, for the U.S. Department of Energy, show that the super-cooled gas -if ignited- could create a massive aerial fire if ignited and released. The thermal hazard may then spread over 1,600 meters around the area of spill. Yemen LNG’s Website also lists, among other issues, the risk of loss of livelihoods from fishing but adds it prepared projects to benefit fishermen.

CitiGroup (C) is currently advising Yemen LNG to raise financing, a spokesman said. The Total spokesperson said Yemen LNG is also in talks for a financing plan from credit agencies Nippon Export and Investment Insurance, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, France’s COFACE and the Korea Exim Bank.

Yemen LNG’s shareholders include: the Yemeni government, represented by Yemen Gas Co., with 16.7%, Total, also the operator with 39.6%, Hunt Oil Co. with 17.2% and South Korea’s SK Corp. (003600.SE), with 9.55%.

More on Yemen LNG here.