Yemen will complete the repairs to the natural gas pipeline, which was bombed on Tuesday, in a week, oil minister, Ahmed Daris, told Saba on Saturday.
“The Yemeni government is taking measures to protect oil and gas facilities and pipelines from more attacks in the future,” he was quoted as saying.
The pipeline, which links Block 18 to the Balhaf LNG plant, has been repeatedly attacked this year coinciding with attacks on the country’s oil pipelines.
More investments will flow into Yemen’s energy sector which remains the engine of other economic sectors in the country, he added.
In his statement, Dares said the oil and minerals ministry ordered the petroleum exploration and production authority and PetroMasila to develop and activate technical and supervisory programs and to prepare a plan to use flared gas to explore and produce oil at the country’s blocks.
“The move aims to rationalize the use of diesel and switching to using flared gas during the oil exploration and production operations and the procedure will be implemented first at the Masila blocks,” he said.
“The procedure comes within the investment plan aimed at building up the energy sector. Incomes from the use of flared gas and rationalizing diesel are expected to be millions of USD,” he said, adding such earnings will largely help boost the national economy.
“Yemen needs to better utilize its resources. Now, the oil ministry and other bodies are studying to translate this into reality”.
The minister said Yemen plans to build the national petroleum and minerals companies to invest in the national resources as reiterated readiness to provide all facilities for firms operating and those still eying investments in the country.
Furthermore, he said the ministry will start procedures to build the Ras Isa tanks to store crude produced from Block 18 in Marib and nearby blocks.
“This strategic project will be given top priority and will help serve the national economy since it will replace the old floating storage tank, the Safer Tanker,” he said.