Page 10 - MEOG Week 34 2022

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

UAE-backed troops retake oil

assets in Yemen’s Shabwa

YEMEN UAE-BACKED forces in Yemen retook control to the port of Balhaf, the location of the Yemen
of oilfields in the south of the country following LNG terminal. According to lead stakeholder,
intense fighting with groups aligned with the TotalEnergies, in April 2017 the Yemeni govern-
Houthi militia, which is in turn supported by ment “requisitioned some of the Balhaf facilities,
Iran. which were de facto unused, for the coalition
Local media reported that the al-Amaliqa forces supporting the government”. It added,
(Giants) Brigades, alongside the Southern Tran- though, that plant remains in “good condition”
sitional Council’s Shabwa Defence Forces (SDF), despite damage to the Yemen LNG pipeline.
had seized control of energy facilities in Shabwa Yemen is home to around 3bn barrels of oil
Province from the Special Security Forces, a par- and roughly 17 trillion cubic feet (481bn cubic
amilitary police group. Days earlier the Giants metres) of gas.
and the SDF took control of Shabwa’s capital, In May last year, then-oil minister Baaboud
Ataq, again from the SDF. said that IOCs had resumed their operations in
Control of Shabwa has shifted between the the country as part of efforts to ramp up to pre-
groups amid various attempts on both parts to war production levels. He said that five interna-
‘liberate’ the region. tional companies, including oilfield specialists
Fighting between government forces with Baker Hughes and Schlumberger as well as oil
Saudi Arabian and Emirati backing and the Iran- producers OMV of Austria and Canada’s Calval-
backed Houthis has centred around Shabwa and ley Petroleum, had relaunched activities in the
neighbouring Ma’rib, to the west, which are country.
home to the majority of the country’s oil and gas Baaboud noted that a 3D seismic survey had
reserves. been carried out over an area of 269 square km in
Over the past decade the Houthis have Block 9, with exploration wells also drilled there
expanded their reach beyond the Sa’dah in the in recent months, marking the first exploratory
far north-west, along the border with Saudi, pro- drilling since the outbreak of civil conflict in
gressing south and east, taking the capital Sana’a 2015. Oil production peaked at 441,000 barrels
in 2014, resulting in the ongoing civil war and per day in 2001 but had fallen to just 16,000 bpd
prompting Riyadh’s intervention. in 2018 as IOCs put their operations under force
The group pushed into Ma’rib and Shabwa majeure.
last year, taking control of key oil and gas assets Baaboud told Asharq Al-Awsat that produc-
and the central provinces have become the most tion was averaging 55,000 bpd and noted that
important areas of conflict between the belliger- work is ongoing to resume production at Block
ents, with focus shifting from the western coastal 5 for export through a new pipeline. This will add
province of Hodeidah. roughly 20,000-25,000 bpd during the early pro-
In addition to its oilfields, Shabwa is home duction phase.™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 34 24•August•2022