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Yemen’s southern separatists asked all foreign firms producing oil and gas in the region to halt exports from the region.
The separatist group Southern Herak demanded in a statement that foreign investors and international oil companies put a halt on oil exports from the south of Yemen.Â
The biggest oil and gas district, located in Shabwa province in the southern parts of the country, consists of al-Dabbah oil export terminal and Balhaf gas export terminal. Southg Yemen’s Balhaf facility is being heavily guarded by Yemeni troops. It is run by France’s Total and ships liquefied natural gas (LNG) primarily to Asia and some European countries.
On Tuesday the group staged mass rallies in the southern cities of Aden and Mukalla, setting an ultimatum for the government to evacuate its soldiers and civil servants before 30th November.
“The state of the south is coming and no power can stop us from achieving this,” the statement said. The rebels demnanded all companies operating in oil and gas to halt exports until technicians appointed by the southern movement oversee the process and revenues are placed in banks under the name of a new southern state. “The future relationship between the southern state and these companies will be determined by how committed they are to this,” the statement said.
Yemen is not one of the main oil producer in the region but has proven oil reserves of around 3bn barrels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which estinmated Yemen’s crude oil production in March this year at about 100,000bpd. Most of Yemen’s output comes from the Marib-Jawf area in the north and the Masila area in the southeast.Total is the biggest foreign investor in Yemen, followed by DNO.
