SANA'A: Yemen's Ministry of Oil recently announced that it was looking at either revamping the existing Aden Oil refinery or more simply building a brand new one, moving Yemen away from decades of neglect into the 21st century. The project is set to cost $2 billion as per estimated by contractors and experts. Before reaching that figure, Oil Minister Hisham Sharaf thoroughly discussed the matter with foreign companies which expertise were essential. The executive manager of the refinery Najeeb Al Alawaj stressed that the new modern refinery “project” was still being discussed, adding that the ministry had yet to allocate the required funds. So far, the ministry only allowed for some emergency refurbishment such as the replacement of an old petrol unit and other emergency repairs. The Romanian company IB has already been granted the tender. The refinery had to stop its activities last year following numerous attacks by Marib tribes against its pipelines, literally crippling the country's Oil industry and forcing the government to import Petroleum products from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The sabotage dangerously emptied the state cash reserve with an estimated loss of $600 Million per month in import and as much of not more in loss of incomes. Aden refinery which is the oldest within the Arabic Peninsula was built by the British company BP in 1952 and became operational in 1954. The Yemeni government acquired ownership of the refinery in May 1977. Renowned political expert Muhammad Jubran revealed that corruption issues pretty much destroyed the refinery as funds allocated to its maintenance were systematically being syphoned by local officials. He added that he know of the government plans to sell the refinery, saying that the uprising had interrupted the negotiations and prevented this national landmark to leave the country's portfolio. But more disturbingly it is the fact that officials approved the sale of Oil derivatives to foreign nations well below the market price which is now troubling economists and Yemenis. According to the latest financial audit, Yemen would have “thrown away hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues to the benefit of some Oil giant, amongst whom TOTAL E&P. “The state squandered away our resources to the benefit of foreign nations which as vampires suck away our nation's blood. We have betrayed in the evilest way possible. We need know to hold those in charge accountable,” said a former engineer. Jubran pointed out had already that estimated the cost of replacing the existing refinery at $1 Billion after consulting experts and consultants, establishing the production capacity at about 150 thousand barrels-per-day. Economists established that while the government spent in a decade millions of dollars in case study and experts surveys, it could have used one year of the refinery's derivatives to finance the building of a new one. According to experts the government subsidies of oil derivatives is an illusory support which doesn't benefit the citizens but goes to finance rampant corruption with a reported income per year of YR. 537 billion as per the government declaration in 2011. Mustafa Nasr Taha, the manager of the Studies and Economical Information Center, said that in hos views the developing of Aden refinery was the main issue of the new government. He added that although calls for tenders had been issued 3 years ago, the government had yet to order the implementation of the program. Taha pointed out that the future of the refinery was still very much unclear since the state had failed to determine whether strategic partners would share ownership. He also urged the government to focus its efforts at the Donors' Conference on getting the funds needed for the refinery before anything else. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/BokUq Tags: Economy, Oil, Reconstruction, Refinery Section: Latest News, Yemen
