The Aden refinery on Sunday resumed its operations a week after getting the first crude shipment carried via the Marib pipeline, officials at the refinery said.
The main processing facility in Yemen has received a new shipment, about 630,000 barrels, which was exported from the Ras Isa terminal, the second since the pipeline resumed pumping few weeks ago after nine-month halt.
The Marib pipeline, which carries about 110,000 barrels a day from Marib oilfields to the Ras Isa terminal in Hodeida, was repaired in mid-July and resumed pumping two weeks later after it had been shut down since October.
It was repeatedly attacked last year and in the first half of this year and its shutdown cost the country billions of US dollars.
During its eight-month shutdown, maintenance was conducted to the refinery, with a 150,000 b/d capacity, and the first refining unit has already restarted, the officials said.
The refinery gets about 2.4 million barrels of crude from the Ras Isa terminal a month, just as the companies transporting their output via the pipeline are struggling to increase their production to the normal average.
Yemen produces about 230,000 b/d at the moment, 40,000 barrels down from its normal output.
In the meantime, Yemen has short-term and long-term plans to develop the refinery, with the first projects to be focused on modernizing the processing units, director of the refinery was quoted as saying by Saba.
The long-term plans will aim at building a new refinery and the project has been listed among strategic projects expected to receive funds from donors, Al-Awj was quoted as saying.