Yemen oil pipeline blown up
© Unknown
A group of tribesmen in Yemen have blown up the country's main oil pipeline, halting deliveries to an oil export terminal on the Red Sea, local and tribal sources say.

Local security officials say the latest attack took place very early on Saturday in the Habab district of restive eastern province of Ma'rib.

The sabotage forced engineers to shut down the 320-kilometer pipeline.

The blast has disrupted deliveries from oil fields to the Ras Isa export terminal on the Red Sea.

The pipeline regularly carries about 100,000 barrels of oil per day from fields in Ma'rib Province to Ras Isa oil terminal, north of the port city of Hodeida.

Tribesmen in Yemen have also exploded another major and strategic oil pipeline in southeastern Hadramawt Province for several times in recent months.

Similar attacks in the past have been carried out by local armed tribesmen, demanding a greater share of the country's oil revenues.

The disruption could affect the economy as Sana'a mainly relies on oil and gas exports for foreign currency earnings.

Officials say tribesmen carry out such attacks in order to pressure the government to create jobs, release their relatives from prison and settle land disputes.

Over the past few years, oil and gas pipelines in Yemen have come under repeated attacks, which have resulted in fuel shortages and slashed export earnings.

Yemen, an impoverished but oil-rich country, depends on energy exports for some 70 percent of government spending.

Government figures show that attacks on infrastructure cost Yemen nearly five billion dollars from 2011 to 2013.