Yemen Petroleum Company has lately announced an international tender to import fuels in a move which ended the decade-long contract of the Aden Refinery on fuel imports.
CEO of the company Ali Al-Taefi told the official Saba agency that Yemen will save around $25 million a month when the fuel imports are carried out by the company which has its own storage tanks at Yemeni seaports.
"Our abilities including storage facilities will help us save funds Yemen used to give in fees of handling, transportation, hired storage tanks and losses when the Aden Refinery was responsible for the imports," he said.
The tender comes within the efforts to meet the local demand during February-March amidst continued drop in the domestically consumed crude oil due to repeated attacks on the Marib oil pipeline.
Moreover, Al-Taefi said the company plans to build more storage facilities including one with a capacity of 105 tons at the Ras Isa Terminal on the Red Sea. The project will cost $41.5 million, he said, while adding that it will also build two pipes, 19 km each and a floating berth at the terminal.
In recent years, Yemen has suffered from a sharp drop in its oil output which in turn affected oil exports and revenues.
By October, the oil exports fell by 7 million barrels and revenues by $800 million year-over-year.
The output fall has been blamed on repeated attacks on crude pipelines which also led to the decline in the domestically consumed oil declined forcing the authorities to import fuels. The fuel import bills exceeded the country's oil export revenue. By October, the oil exports brought in around $1.455 billion while the country imported fuels for $1.771 billion, the Central Bank reported.