Al-Qaeda’s attack on a natural gas pipeline in Yemen on Saturday failed to prevent a scheduled export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) India, the Yemeni government’s state LNG export company has said in a statement.
A section of Total’s gas 322 kilometre pipeline, which runs from Maarib to a port and liquefaction facility at Balhaf, was blown up on Saturday. Reuters reports that the French supermajor evacuated staff to neighbouring Dijibouti while local engineers repair the pipeline. Further LNG exports before the pipeline is repaired are unlikely.
Yemen has suffered a series of attacks on its Maarib oil export pipeline this year, putting severe fiscal strain on the embattled Saleh government, which has been forced to take charitable imports from Saudi Arabia.
Korea Gas is the pipeline’s biggest customer, with a contract to buy 2 million tonnes of LNG per year from the country.
“The LNG Carrier Seri Balhaf was loading an Indian bound LNG cargo this Sunday morning at the Yemen LNG’s Balhaf terminal on the Gulf of Aden 24 hours after the sabotage of the gas pipeline,” Yemen LNG – 40% owned by Total – said in a statement on Saturday.
No date for the restoration of the pipeline has yet been provided. Production and export losses are mitigated by the fact that Yemen LNG had already scheduled a liquefaction plant shutdown for annual maintenance from 23 October in any event.
The US, at the Saleh government’s invitation, continues to fight Al-Qaeda in the country. The terrorist group may have carried out the rocket attack on the gas pipeline as an act of revenge following killings of their militants.
