Minister of Oil and Minerals Amir Al-Aidrous has rejected rumors that oil in Yemen would vanish by 2010, saying: I don't believe in such rumors which have surfaced many times but proved untrue.
Yemen has been and will remain producing and exporting oil God willing, said the minister during a ceremony on the launch of 2010 scholarship program under the auspices of the Yemeni Liquefied Natural Gas on Thursday.
Until this moment, Yemen has not explored all of its oil fields well, he said, adding that the exploration process was inadequate but promising action in this regard is still to come.
He confessed that Yemen has not done enough to explore its oil potential because the current exploration process is only taking place at two out of 13 deposits Yemen already has.
He confessed to the lack of most effective planning for exploring oil in the past, assuring the ministry is now working on improving its exploration policies.
On the acute shortage of domestic gas, Al-Aidrous assured that the problem would be tackled by 2011 after more filters are installed at the Balhaf LNG plant.
The shortage is blamed on many reasons…all objective and real, but it is not time to explain, he said.
He added that the second train of the LNG project in Balhaf, Shabwa, will be readied before the specified time.