Sources reveal secrets of leasing most important oil facility in Yemen

ADEN, Jan. 27 (YPA) – Informed sources on Monday revealed details of a contract to rent “Caltex” oil facility for a period of 50 years to one of the influential people in the city of Aden, southern Yemen.

The sources said, for the first time, that the value of the agreement contract signed between the Yemeni Petroleum Company in the city of Aden and General Manager of the Arab Company for Investment, Industry and Trade Mohammed Saleh Afara amounted to 300,000 dollars annually since 1992.

The second article of the signed agreement gave the influential investor the right to construct buildings, build and replace tanks in the oil facility, affirming that what will be built is property of the investor, according to the sources.

The so-called “Southern Anti-Corruption Commission” accused Afara of destroying the facility since its rental, 25 years ago, through a corruption lobby that is still rampant in the province.

The Commission considered that this is a great neglect of the most important sovereign oil facility for the national economy.

The Caltex oil facility provides supply services to ships in the Aden Free Zone, as it has strategic storage capacity. Its annual revenues amount to billions of riyals, which were supposed to go to the state treasury.

YPA