(Refiles to correct formatting)
Feb 22 (Reuters) - Yemen's oil production has fallen
sharply during months of political unrest over the last year,
with output coming to a near standstill in mid-February during a
week-long worker strike at its largest oilfield.
A mid-February update from the U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA) showed the poorest Arab country's small
output slumped to around 170,000 barrels per day (bpd) last year
from an estimated 259,000 bpd in 2010.
Around half of Yemen's oil output and its exports out of its
Ras Isa oil terminal on the coast of Red Sea are halted as the
country's main oil pipeline is shut since November after a
series of explosions.
Exports from Masila oilfield and Ash Shihr terminal in the
east of the country stopped for about a week in February as
workers went on strike over salaries and retirement packages
ahead of Tuesday's elections where Yemenis voted to end the
33-year rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Workers ended their seven-day strike last Thursday but
Yemen's oil production is still at risk of disruption, as
workers are increasingly unhappy with the state-owned company
PetroMasila, which has taken over operations from Canada's Nexen
, whose licence was not renewed by the government.
Below are some facts about Yemen - the world's 16th biggest
seller of liquefied natural gas - which lies at the mouth of a
key shipping route.
OIL
-- The country's economy is heavily dependant on
hydrocarbons, which account for 30 percent of gross domestic
product, nearly 75 percent of government revenues, and over 90
percent of foreign exchange earnings, according to the U.S.
Energy Information Administration (EIA).
-- Citizens have renewed calls for southern Yemen, which
produces most of the country's crude oil, to go back to its
independent status before unity with the north in 1990.
-- Yemen had proven oil reserves of around 3 billion barrels
as of Jan. 1, 2012, according to the EIA, sourcing Oil and Gas
Journal. The country's oil is generally light and sweet.
-- Oil reserves and production are sourced from two areas:
Marib-Jawf basin in the north, and Say'un-Masila basin in the
south. The government estimates Masila holds about 84 percent of
the national total.
-- Daily oil production fell to 170,000 barrels per day (bpd)
in 2011, sharply down from the estimated 259,000 bpd for 2010.
Yemen's oil output has been on a steady decline since 2001, when
it hit a peak of 440,000 bpd. But the political turbulence of
2011 has pushed the output below 200,000 bpd, EIA says.
-- Oil is transported from Masila to Ash Shahir by a 90-mile
pipeline with a capacity of 300,000 bpd, while the 130-mile
Shabwa-Bir Ali pipeline carries up to 135,000 bpd from the
Ayad-Shabwa block to the Bir Ali terminal on the Gulf of Aden.
The 270-mile Marib-Ras Isa pipeline has a capacity of 400,000
bpd and transports oil from the Marib basin to the Ras Isa
offshore export terminal on the Red Sea.
-- Yemen has five oil export terminals. Ras Isa is the main
crude terminal offshore in the Red Sea. But most of the crude it
loads is usually shipped to the Aden refinery on the Gulf of
Aden.
The Bir Ali facility handles crude from Shabwa, while Ash
Shihr is now operated by state-owned PetroMasila, which took
over from Canada's Nexen after the government refused
to renew the company's operating licence.
OIL REFINING
-- The state-operated Aden Refinery Company, which also
manages Yemen's strategic fuel reserves, is an old refinery with
a capacity of 130,000 bpd, while the Yemen Refinery Company's
newer Marib can refine 10,000 bpd of crude.
-- Yemeni and Chinese officials have discussed upgrading the
ageing Aden refinery to process Kuwaiti and Masila crude, which
may cut Yemen's fuel imports and boost exports.
-- Yemen is a regular buyer of oil products, with imports of
around 30,000 tonnes per month, but fuel shortages have forced
the country to import more since 2011.
Saudi Arabia has donated 3 million barrels of crude oil to
Yemen in 2011. The top oil exporter also donated at least
500,000 tonnes of fuel to its impoverished southern neighbour
earlier this year.
ENERGY BOTTLENECK
-- An estimated 3.5 million bpd passed through the narrow Bab
al Mandab strait between Yemen and Djibouti in 2010, according
to the EIA.
-- Disruption to the narrow shipping lane could stop Gulf
oil and LNG tankers from passing through the Suez Canal to the
Americas or Europe.
It could also prevent oil tankers from unloading at Egypt's
Ain Sukhna terminal near the southern entrance of the Suez Canal
which feeds crude to Sidi Kerir on the Mediterranean coast of
Egypt via the Sumed pipeline.
About half of the Sumed crude comes from Saudi Arabia and is
mostly shipped to Europe, according to the pipeline operator.
GAS
-- Yemen has proven gas reserves of 16.9 trillion cubic feet
as of January 2012, according to the Oil and Gas Journal.
-- Most of the gas is found in the Marib-Jawf oilfields and
it is mostly reinjected to enhance oil recovery. Gas production
has been in decline since 2005.
-- Yemen LNG's export facility at Balhaf, which opened in
2009 and is led by French oil major Total with three
South Korea companies holding stakes, is the largest-ever
industrial project in Yemen.
-- The $4.5 billion Yemen LNG project has two production
trains with a combined capacity of 6.7 million tonnes per year,
supplying mainly to Asia, and then to Europe and Americas.
-- One of the pipelines feeding gas from the Marib field to
the LNG plant was also attacked in 2011.
FOREIGN COMPANIES INVOLVED
According to the EIA, nine international oil companies
operate in Yemen's 12 main producing blocks.
According to Yemen's Petroleum Exploration and Production
producing companies are: Canada's Calvalley Petroleum,
U.S.-based Hunt Oil and Occidental Petroleum, Norway's
DNO, Korean National Oil Company, France's
Total, Austria's OMV, Britain's Dove Energy,
Canada's Nexen.
Kuwait Energy, India's Reliance, China's Sinopec
and Italy's Eni are among the companies which
are in exploration stage.
Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), BP
Statistical Review, Reuters news, European Union energy portal,
Yemen's Petroleum Exploration and Production Authority, company
websites.
(Reporting by Daniel Fineren and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by
Himani Sarkar)
(Reporting by Daniel Fineren and Humeyra Pamuk)
There are no comments yet