Yemen has dispatched a military taskforce to protect the technical teams repairing the Marib oil pipeline, which has been shut down since October, the interior ministry reported.
Officials said Monday the repairs are expected to be completed this week and pumping will start immediately. Teams have completed some repairs including those reported this year.
"If the situation will be ok after the completion of the repairs, the , first cargo will arrive in the Aden Refinery by the end of the month," the officials said.
"We hope no more attacks will disrupt crude, though we heard tribesmen tried today to attack the teams continuing the repair work," they added. "The tribesmen already fired at the teams but no injuries or damages to the pipeline were reported".
The taskforce headed to the Serwah district in Marib province on Sunday and will not come back until all repairs to the pipeline were completed, the ministry said.
The Marib pipeline, which carries crude from Marib and Shabwa to the Ras Isa terminal in the West, was repeatedly attacked last year and this year, and negotiations and mediations to convince tribesmen to stop attacking it have failed several times this year.
The shutdown of this pipeline since October has been blamed for acute shortages after the Aden refinery was closed in November.
Separately, Saba quoted executive director of the Aden Refinery, Najeeb Al-Awj, as saying the modernization project of the refinery has been approved within the top priorities of the government to be financed by donors in the future.
"Donors realize the importance of this project, which will lead to processing all oil products in the refinery to meet the local demand and export the surplus quantities and will help develop petrochemical industries in Yemen," he said, according to Saba.