Page 8 - MEOG Week 02 2022

MEOG POLICY & SECURITY MEOG

Pro-government troops

recapture Yemen’s Shabwa

YEMEN FORCES aligned with the United Nations-rec- said that IOCs had resumed their operations in
ognised government said this week that they the country as part of efforts to ramp up to pre-
had reclaimed the oil-rich province of Shabwa in war production levels. He said that five interna-
central Yemen from the Houthi militia, receiving tional companies including oilfield specialists
backing from the UAE. Baker Hughes and Schlumberger as well as oil
On January 10, the 15,000-strong al-Amaliqa producers OMV of Austria and Canada’s Cal-
(Giants) Brigade announced it had “liberated” valley Petroleum had relaunched activities in
the northern district of Ain, the province’s last the country.
area under Houthi control, following a 10-day Baaboud noted that a 3D seismic survey had
assault. been carried out over an area of 269 square km in
Fighting between government forces with Block 9, with exploration wells also drilled there
Saudi Arabian and Emirati backing and the Iran- in recent months, marking the first exploratory
backed Houthis has centred around Shabwa and drilling since the outbreak of civil conflict in
neighbouring Ma’rib, to the west, which are 2015.
home to the majority of the country’s oil and gas Oil production peaked at 441,000 barrels per
reserves. day in 2001 but had fallen to just 16,000 bpd in
Over the past decade the Houthis have 2018 as IOCs put their operations under force
expanded their reach beyond the Sa’dah in the majeure.
far north-west, along the border with Saudi, pro- Baaboud told Asharq Al-Awsat that produc-
gressing south and east, taking the capital Sana’a tion was averaging 55,000 bpd and noted that
in 2014, resulting in the ongoing civil war and work is ongoing to resume production at Block
prompting Riyadh’s intervention. 5 for export through a new pipeline. This will add
The group pushed into Ma’rib and Shabwa roughly 20,000-25,000 bpd during the early pro-
last year, taking control of key oil and gas assets, duction phase.
and the central provinces have become the most He said: “The government is deploying
important areas of conflict between the belliger- exceptional efforts to face many of the challenges
ents with focus shifting from the western coastal produced by the coup. As oil is one of the most
province of Hodeidah. important contributors to our national econ-
In addition to its oilfields, Shabwa is home omy, the Ministry of Oil and Minerals [MOM] is
to the port of Balhaf, the location of the Yemen working according to clear plans based on a stra-
LNG terminal. According to lead stakeholder tegic vision, the most important pillar of which
TotalEnergies, in April 2017 the Yemeni govern- was the completion of the institutional building
ment “requisitioned some of the Balhaf facilities, of the ministry and its units.”
which were de facto unused, for the coalition Baaboud added: “In this context, we have
forces supporting the government”. It added re-activated the Petroleum Exploration and
though that plant remains in “good condition” Production Authority (PEPA) in its new head-
despite damage to the Yemen LNG pipeline. quarters in the temporary capital, Aden. The
A day after the Shabwa announcement, Authority represents the institutional frame-
reports emerged that the al-Amaliqa fighters had work concerned with the supervision and tech-
mobilised into Ma’rib, almost instantly recaptur- nical monitoring of operating oil companies.”
ing the Harib district. Meanwhile, the minister noted that the MOM
Yemen is home to around 3bn barrels of oil has “made great efforts to restore oil production
and roughly 17 trillion cubic feet (481bn cubic in the different blocks”, noting that OMV and
metres) of gas. Calvalley had resumed operations at Block S1 in
In May last year, then-oil minister Baaboud Al-Uqlah and Block 9 respectively.™

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