Yemen oil export revenues decline $ 2.68b in 10 months

Yemen’s annual revenues from oil exports was estimated to be around $ 1.4 billion for the first 10 months of 2009 compared to $ 4.15 billion in the same period last year, or a decline of $ 2.675 billion, a Yemeni government report said on Tuesday.

The Yemeni central bank, in its report, said such decline was due to a drop in oil exports and a decrease of government shares from imports which was 24.5 millions per barrel at the end of this year when compared to 38.8 millions of the same period last year.

 
It also noted that the decline of government share from oil exports was due to decrease of oil prices in global markets, Global Arab Network said on Wednesday.

 
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said Yemen was rapidly losing its crude oil reserves.
In a report, Carnegie said Yemeni oil exports, a key source of foreign currency, declined from 450,000 barrels per day in 2003 to 280,000 in early 2009, Middle East Newsline reported.

 
“Barring any major new discoveries, energy experts generously estimate that Yemen’s oil exports will cease in 10 years,” the report, titled “Yemen: Avoiding a Downward Spiral,” said.

 
However, despite the challenges faced by the country, in a landmark development, Yemen has exported its first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The Yemen LNG export plant, which will be able to produce 6.7mn toes per annum (tpa) of LNG at full capacity, was launched on Oct.14 2009.

 
Yemen’s economy is heavily reliant on hydrocarbons, which account for around a quarter of the country’s nominal GDP and 70 percent of government revenues. The government will therefore be hoping that revenues from the Yemen LNG project will help offset the decline in oil revenues.