YEMEN Press Agency

Pro-coalition leaders implicate in smuggling crude oil across Hadramout coast.

HADRAMOUT, Oct. 15 (YPA) – A large-scale looting of Yemeni crude oil is taken place daily and in complete secrecy, at a time when citizens in the Yemeni provinces are experiencing a tragic economic and humanitarian crisis characterized by salary cuts and high living costs.

Sources familiar with the matter quoted data from shipping websites as saying that giant ships have been detected off the coast of the Atab area in Hadhramaut province, designated for crude oil smuggling operations.

The sources explained that the pumping process was carried out through dedicated pipelines and pumps that direct the crude oil to the middle of the sea, bypassing the need for the Al-Dabbah oil port, the official outlet for oil exports.

They indicated that the revenues from this oil were shared between influential figures in the governorate and senior leaders in the coalition-backed Presidential Leadership Council. The UAE-funded Southern Transitional Council (STC) faction was also involved in this operation.

The UAE has been attempting to impose military control over the coastal city of Al-Hami and large areas in the Al-Shihr district, near the Al-Dabbah oil port, since last week. This has been met with armed confrontations from the Al-Hamum tribes loyal to the Hadhramaut Tribal Alliance.

This comes amid the controversy that erupted earlier this year regarding the presence of a large-diameter crude oil pipeline extending from near the oil tanks in Al-Dabbah to a newly constructed refining unit at Al-Rayyan Airport, which is controlled by UAE forces, and other facilities housing dedicated oil refining units.

In October 2022, the Sanaa government halted crude oil exports from the ports of Al-Dabbah in Hadramout and Al-Nashima in Shabwa, both of which overlook the Arabian Sea, following warning military operations against oil tankers.

Sanaa justified these operations by claiming that oil is a national and sovereign resource that cannot be “looted and its revenues diverted to the benefit of parties affiliated with the coalition” without a commitment to pay the salaries of state employees, which have been suspended since the end of 2016.

AA