Page 10 - MEOG Week 45 2021
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MEOG                                      POLICY & SECURITY                                            MEOG


       Yemen shakes up oil firm leadership






        YEMEN            YEMENI President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi  relaunched activities in the country.
                         this week appointed new executives at two state-  Baaboud noted that a 3D seismic survey had
                         owned oil companies as fighting intensified  been carried out over an area of 269 square km in
                         between government and Iranian-backed mili-  Block 9, with exploration wells also drilled there
                         tants in the oil-rich Ma’rib Governorate.  in recent months, marking the first exploratory
                           Ammar Nasser Al-Awlaki was appointed as  drilling since the outbreak of civil conflict in
                         general manager of the Yemen General Cor-  2015.
                         poration for Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources   Oil production peaked at 441,000 barrels per
                         (YOGC), while Mohammed Yaslam was made  day in 2001 but had fallen to just 16,000 bpd in
                         an executive director of Aden Refinery Co.  2018 as IOCs put their operations under force
                           The moves followed the appointment by Oil  majeure. Baaboud told Asharq Al-Awsat that
                         Minister Abdulsalam Baaboud of Saleh Al-Jariri  production was averaging 55,000 bpd and noted
                         as head of the Aden Oil Co., taking over from  that work is ongoing to resume production at
                         Aden Governor Ahmed Lamlas.          Block 5 for export through a new pipeline. This
                           Unsurprisingly, the UAE-backed Southern  will add roughly 20,000-25,000 bpd during the
                         Transitional Council (STC), which has mili-  early production phase.
                         tary and security control over Aden, rejected   He said: “The government is deploying excep-
                         the appointments. “STC rejects Hadi’s decisions  tional efforts to face many of the challenges
                         and all their consequences,” spokesperson Ali  produced by the coup. As oil is one of the most
                         Al-Kathiri said on Twitter.          important contributors to our national econ-
                           He added that the moves had violated the  omy, the Ministry of Oil and Minerals is work-
                         Riyadh agreement while “further impeding  ing according to clear plans based on a strategic
                         efforts to complete” the 2019 power-sharing deal  vision, the most important pillar of which was
                         which was sponsored by the United Nations.  the completion of the institutional building of
                           Security officials said that at least 200 fight-  the ministry and its units.”
                         ers were killed last week during clashes between   Baaboud added: “In this context, we have
                         the Iran-backed Houthis and the government  re-activated the Petroleum Exploration and
                         forces in Ma’rib. The majority of those killed are  Production Authority (PEPA) in its new head-
                         believed to have been Houthis.       quarters in the temporary capital, Aden. The
                           In May, then-oil minister Baaboud said that  Authority represents the institutional framework
                         IOCs had resumed their operations in the coun-  concerned with the supervision and technical
                         try as part of efforts to ramp up to pre-war pro-  monitoring of operating oil companies.”
                         duction levels.                        Meanwhile, the minister noted that the MOM
                           He said that five international companies  has “made great efforts to restore oil production
                         including oilfield specialists Baker Hughes and  in the different blocks”, noting that OMV and
                         Schlumberger as well as oil producers OMV of  Calvalley had resumed operations at Block S1 in
                         Austria and Canada’s Calvalley Petroleum had  Al-Uqlah and Block 9 respectively.™



































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