Yemen's oil export pipeline attacked shortly after repair

Source:Xinhua Published: 2012-12-29 11:11:50

Yemen's main oil export pipeline was blown up late Friday, a few hours after engineers repaired it following a tribal mediation between local authorities and armed tribesmen accused of repeatedly attacking the line, an interior ministry official said.

The fresh attack, the sixth of its kind since last month, hit the pipeline in Habab Valley of the northeast province of Marib, which oil engineers had repaired earlier in the day after a tribal mediation ended a seven-week conflict between the local military authorities and the tribesmen.

"The attack hit the same section of the oil line in Habab Valley, just a few hours after the engineering team fixed the damage of the previous attacks on Friday morning," the official said.

Earlier in the day, the same security source told Xinhua that a tribal mediation had succeeded after an army offensive earlier this week, but he declined to provide further details on the reached agreement.

The repeated sabotages promoted the army to launch a massive offensive on Tuesday against the suspected tribal saboteurs, leaving at least 10 tribesmen killed and more than 15 others injured.

The pipeline, which carries about 110,000 barrels of crude oil a day to the country's main oil terminal on the Red Sea for export, was attacked on November 11. The line then was damaged in a series of attacks during the past seven weeks by suspected tribal saboteurs.

The cash-stripped Yemeni interim government depends on oil exports for up to 70 percent of its budget.

Posted in: Mid-East

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