“We welcome the new Friends of Yemen structure,” said Inger Andersen, World Bank Regional Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa, at the conclusion of the Friends of Yemen Conference meeting this Wednesday.

With the fate of an entire nation riding on the Friends of Yemen Conference, Yemeni officials, among whom, Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, have been keen to underscore the role of the international community in enabling the poorest nation in the Arabian Peninsula to successfully complete its transition of power and economic stabilisation.

As Yemenis have once more be made to endure a severe fuel penury and a lengthy electricity blackout following acts of sabotage so severe that the state has been left unable to cope, forced to admit defeat as officials scramble to return civilian life to some form of normality, the Central Bank of Yemen published a report in which it revealed that Yemen’s February crude oil exports “fell to 800,000 barrels from an estimated 2 million in January.”

In the midst of much gloom and doom, Yemenis were reminded earlier this February that Yemen does indeed hold a few untapped resources of its own: human potential.

A report from the World Bank published earlier last week came to concur the International Monetary Fund (IMF) findings that Yemen, among other countries in the region, will require external “financing worth up to $50 billion in 2015”, should it be expected to avoid a massive economic meltdown.

A source at the Saudi Foreign Ministry denied on Tuesday rumours relating to tensions existing in between Yemen and GCC countries, noting that the Friends of Yemen’s meeting relocation to London as opposed to Riyahd (Saudi Arabia) should be understood as a mere technical rearrangement, nothing more.

Obstacles stand in the way of four major Yemeni companies seeking to invest in the country's telecommunication sector, official sources confirmed.

In recent weeks several local media have alleged that the central government intends to put an end to oil subsidies, in line with the IMF (International Monetary Funds) recommendations in order to meet its financial obligations and free much needed cash.

In a report published on Wednesday, IRIN highlighted the ever-increasing dangers faced by aid workers in Yemen, as kidnappings and targeted killings have become more than just occasional hazards.

Yemen newly appointed Oil and Minerals Minister, Khaled Mahfouz Bahah has called on Britain to increase its footprint in Yemen by considering making substantial investment into the country’s oil and gas industry. Although not considered a heavyweight oil and gas producer, Yemen has proven in recent months that its natural resources reserves have thoroughly under-estimated and more importantly under-valued, thus making the impoverished nation a valuable asset for wannabe investors.

Local officials confirmed on Saturday that yet another attack in the eastern province of Mareb against the main crude export pipeline forced engineers to call for a complete shut-down of the oil flow and provision for a repair team to be dispatched on-site.

While Yemen continues to face a protracted political crisis both north and south of its capital, caught in between the Houthis’ advances and al-Harak’ secessionist claims, the impoverished nation seems to be enthralled in a never-ending cycle of violence, unrest and aggravated political tensions.

As 2013 is drawing to a close, Yemen coalition government confirmed it approved on Thursday a draft annual budget for 2014 which provisions for an increase of 4% in comparison to 2013 state spending. Yemen’s 2014 state spending budget has been set at $13.4 billion.

An executive for Shaher Trading, a company owned by prominent Yemeni businessman Shaher Abdulhak, said the company is strongly studying the possibilities of increasing its investments in the Yemeni telecommunication sector within a year.

Only a few days into his appointment as Yemen’s new Oil and Mineral Minister, that Khaled Mahfouz Bahah has already made the headlines over a statement he issued in 2013 regarding Yemen’s oil reserves. Minister Bahah declared last year that Yemen, as an oil producer country, sat on a third of the world global stock reserve.

Yemen LNG General Manager, Jacques Azibert, and the Governor of Marib Sheikh Sultan Al-Aradah, signed in Sana’a today three agreements that will provide YR 1.4 billion in financing for 40 community development projects benefiting the people of Marib.

Yemen LNG General Manager, Jacques Azibert, and the Governor of Shabwa, Ahmed BaHajj, signed today in Sana’a four development agreements at a total cost of YR 568 million.

Local officials in the eastern province of Marib confirmed on Tuesday morning that “unidentified assailants” targeted Marib oil pipeline which led to a forced shut down of all activities in the area thus prompting a halt of the oil flow to Ras Isa terminal in the Red Sea.

The poorest and most populous country in the Arabian Peninsula, one of Yemen’s biggest challenges in the coming years will remain high unemployment level and a lack of opportunities for its ever-growing youth.

The poorest country of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen is much better known for its over-lapping social, political and security crises than its billionaires’ list. And yet, a country of many contradictions, Yemen is home to some of the world’s richest.

Hossam Sa’ad, MTN Yemen Director General received on Thursday an award which recognizes MTN as Yemen 2013 best investment company, an achievement which was hailed by great many state officials and dignitaries, including Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Iqbal Yassin Bahader, Fares Saqqaf, Advisor to the President as well as others.

Ethiopian officials have confirmed on Wednesday that they are currently looking into a potential electricity deal with Yemen, where Addis Ababa would help Sana’a fill its power deficit by export its surplus of electricity. It is important to note that the project has yet to be proven not only feasible but commercially and financially viable, before negotiations in between both countries could even be considered.

With a growing number of Yemenis looking expectantly at President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi to resolve Yemen-France controversial LNG deal (Liquefied Natural Gas), TOTAL which is Yemen’s biggest foreign investor, faces a complicated future, as many feel the French company overstayed its welcome the second it attempted to exploit the nation’s natural resources.

Although it was first announced by international media this Sunday that armed militants attempted to storm Yemen Oil Ministry by ramming an explosive-laden vehicle into one of its buildings, in a move reminiscent to 2013 terror attack against the Defence Ministry, it appeared that instead, terrorists booby-trapped an intelligence officer’s vehicle before detonated it near the ministry.

Yemen LNG has picked up a series of incorrect information recently conveyed in media and social networks about Yemen LNG Company.

Hundreds of Yemeni Youth protesters and activists answered this Thursday, Tawakkul Karman’s calls to move against TOTAL, the French-based oil company, on account it has exploited Yemen’s natural resources.
 

Total E&P Yemen confirms that on February 2, 2014 the strike called by Block 10 Union was lifted starting at 2:00 PM.

With Yemen nowhere near a resolution deal with France over the selling price of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) protesters and activists returned to the streets this Sunday to voice their discontent at French-owned TOTAL E&P, the main stakeholders in Yemen gas deal.

Yemen LNG confirms that today, Friday, 31st January 2014, at around 02:30am, a blast sounded offshore the Balhaf Plant, coming from a rocket-launched explosive device.

Yemen LNG celebrated in Sana’a today, 28 January, the award of LNG Diplomas to a first batch of graduate engineers who have successfully completed a Diploma of Petroleum Studies, Major in Liquefied Natural Gas, at the Yemen LNG School of Technology in Balhaf, Shabwa. Held under the auspices of the Ministry of Oil and Minerals,  
 

Total E&P Yemen is pleased to announce the selection of eleven Yemeni recipients of TOTAL Scholarship Programme for the year 2014.

Hadhramawt Tribes Confederacy gave DNO, (Norwegian-based Oil company) an ultimatum this Saturday, calling on management to halt all activities until their demands of retributions be fulfilled by Sana’a central government.

As Yemen puts its political affairs in order, ready to embark on a new chapter of its history, officials have been keen to look for new business opportunities with new regional partners as to increase the nation’s visibility on a global level and thus turn Yemen into an economic power-house worthy of its potential.

More than two years have passed since Yemenis took to the streets to denounce poverty and unemployment; yet no improvement has been witnessed on the ground. If anything Yemenis suffer more now than they have done prior to 2011.

Officials at the Oil Ministry have confirmed on Tuesday that disgruntled armed tribesmen from the south-eastern province of Hadhramawt yet again chose to target state oil facilities to express their resentment and anger toward Sana’a, putting a heavy strain on the oil industry.

Only a day after tribesmen sabotaged south-eastern Hadhramawt oil pipeline, as to exert revenge on the government for the killing of prominent tribal leader, Sheikh Said Bin Habrish last December, armed tribal militant once again chose to demonstrate their ire by blowing the major pipeline, thus yet again bringing all activities to a standstill.

A day after the military targeted a funeral tent in the southern province of Daleh, which lies over 300 kilometres south of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, local officials in Hadhramawt (south-eastern province) confirmed that southern exploded a section of a pipeline, thus disrupting the flow of oil.

As 2013 is drawing to a close, Yemen coalition government confirmed it approved on Thursday a draft annual budget for 2014 which provisions for an increase of 4% in comparison to 2013 state spending. Yemen’s 2014 state spending budget has been set at $13.4 billion.  

According to Relief Web, the leading online source for reliable and timely humanitarian information on global crises and disasters since 1996, “faces a particularly worrisome situation” in regards to its current Desert Locus infestation.

Airports across Yemen had to close down for several hours this Tuesday after Union representatives called on all workers to suspend their activities as a result of a dispute with the Treasury.

Officials confirmed this Friday that armed saboteurs managed late on Thursday evening to elude security and blew up a section of Yemen eastern region oil pipeline in the restive province of Marib, east of the capital, Sana’a.

Amid worrying reports pointing to aggravated political unrest and spreading unsecurity, one of Yemen’s financial bodies announced that all was not gloom and doom in the land of Sheba.

Further to Yemen LNG’s Press Release of Friday, 6th December, Yemen LNG can confirm that a rocket-launched explosive device landed on the ground inside the Balhaf Plant at the extremity of the process area. There were no injuries and only slight property damage. Production and shipping operations continue.